Wood Ibis

This grotesque Bird is the only Stork in North America. They are extremely shy and the inaccessibility of their nests in gigantic cypress trees will enable the species to survive long after their more graceful cousins have disappeared. Altho awkward afoot they are nearly as easy awing as Turkey Vultures. They are permanent residents of swamps of our southern states, seldom wandering far from their home locality.

Kennard states he has seen some feeding with bills pointed backward like Flamingos, the bills clattering audibly.

They often soar until seeming minute specks overhead, then drop earthward with terrific speed — or quietly drift out of vision on motionless pinions. When leaving the ground they crouch low and use leg muscles to spring aloft; then go some distance with dangling legs before getting full control.

Sutton says he never heard such a racket of deep-throated grunts, squeals, bellowings, wheezing and bleatings which greeted him from a colony of young WOOD IBISES ready to leave the nest. . . . . A farewell to home ties which even a modern jazz fiend could not equal!