Charles Booker, age 11, of Palestine, Texas, or is question:

What is an ibis?

To our modern world, the ibis is a stork type bird a native of near tropical bungles and waterways. To the ancient Egyptians, he was a sacred bird,, supposedly the wise secretary to their god Osiris. Many mummified ibis bodies have been found in the old tombs of Egypt.

As a rule, the Egyptians had good reason for treating an animal with such respect. They respected cats because these bold little hunters kept down the rat population  and rats raided the granaries of Egypt. They respected hawks, who are also enemies of rats and mice. Their ibis, however, fed on small fish and crustaceans from the muddy Nile food which the Egyptians themselves might have eaten. Perhaps he was respected only because he is s large and handsome bird. Whatts mere, he looks rather like a stork and, goodness knows, people the world over have always loved the stork. There is, you know, an outdated theory that storks bring babies.

The so called sacred ibis of Egypt is a long legged black and white bird. His long neck and his head are bare and black. His plumage is snowy white, overlaid with a few black lacy tail feathers. The ibis, like the stork, flies with his long neck sticking out in front and his long legs sticking out behind. If it were not for his beak, you might mistake ham for a stork. The stork has a straight and sturdy beak. The beak of the ibis is slender and dips in a graceful curve.

In Florida, we have a true stork who is called the wood ibis  which shows how easy it is to confuse the two families. The glossy ibis is a true ibis and he may be found nesting as far north as Utah. He is about the size of a chicken and his black plumage glints with tinges of green or bronze.

This bird builds a sloppy nest of grasses in the tall rushes by some stream or river and he is very rare.

The white ibis, big as a heron, nests in the limpid waterways of Florida: This handsome bird is white as a snowdrift, accented with grepniah black tips to his wings. By far the test glamorous member of the family is the scarlet ibis of tropical South America. His plumage is brilliant scarlet, accented with blue black wingtips:

Not. so long ago, a colony of thousands of the big red birds was found nesting deep in the bungles of Venezuela. When these birds take to the air, a group of them fly in tight formation. They look like a fiery arrowhead, darting across the blue sky.

The beauty of the ibis does not go to his head. For the most important things on his mind are family chores and duties. Both parent, help in building the rather shaggy nest end both take turns incubating the eggs. The babies are helpless balls of down and both parents, naturally, feed and educate them in the ways a proper ibis should behave.