Ibis (bird)

 The Ibis are a family of wading birds allied to the stork, heron, and crane. Four species are known in North America, the white, the scarlet, the glossy, and the white-faced glossy ibis. The white ibis breeds in flocks as far north as Indiana. It frequents mud flats and lives on frogs, snails, and small fish. The nest ís made of weed stalks and coarse grasses, in bushes, trees, or reedy marshes. The birds fly in close rank, like a moving cloud of animated white. The scarlet ibis, once known in Florida, must be sought along the reedy shores and on the islands of the Orinoco. The glossy ibis is a bird of the West Indies. It is seen occasionally in the Gulf States. The white-faced glossy ibis, a rich chest-nut-colored bird twenty-four inches in length, is found from Texas southwestward. Our socalled black and white wood-ibis, forty inches in length, is a sort of stork.
The sacred ibis of the Egyptians was thought to symbolize the light and shade of the moon, while its body represented the heart.

Ibis

Ibis bird