White Ibis

White Ibis
Ibis alba, Linnaeus [now Eudocimus albus]
Octavo edition, plate 360

“I chanced one morning to be on the look-out for White Ibises, in a swamp not many miles from bayou Sara. It was in the end of summer, and all around was pure and calm as the clear sky, the bright azure of which was reflected by the lake before us. The trees had already exchanged the verdure of their foliage for more mellow tints of diversified hue . . . and the Ibises had all departed for the Florida coasts, excepting a few of the white species, one of which we at length espied. . . . [A]s the report of one of our guns echoed among the tall cypresses, down to the water, broken winged, it fell. The exertions which it made to reach the shore seemed to awaken the half-torpid alligators that lay in deep mud at the bottom of the pool. . . . All gave chase to the poor wounded bird, which, on seeing its dreaded and deadly foes, made double speed towards the very spot where we stood. . . . Springing forward . . . [the first alligator] raised his body almost out of the water; his jaws nearly touched the terrified bird; when pulling three triggers at once, we lodged the contents of our guns in the throat of the monster. Thrashing furiously . . . the alligator at last sunk to the mud; and the Ibis, as if in gratitude, walked to our very feet and there lying down, surrendered itself to us. I kept this bird until the succeeding spring, and by care and good nursing, had the pleasure of seeing its broken wing perfectly mended, when, after its long captivity, I restored it to liberty, in the midst of its loved swamps and woods.”

John James Audubon, Birds of America (New York: J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier, 1840-1844), vol. 6, p. 58-59.

View this bird in National Audubon Society Field Guide for North American Birds.