386 wo Dr. D. S. Barton's Account of 
the notice of the late Mr. Wilson, author of the American Orni- 
thology. This gentleman has noticed only three species of the 
genus Tantalus, viz. Tantalus Loculator, or Wood Ibis; T. ruber, 
or scarlet Ibis; and T. albus, or white Ibis. I think it highly 
probable that the two last birds are really one and the same 
species. 
I am fully sensible how imperfect are these notices: but I have 
not hitherto been able to obtain any thing more satisfactory on 
the subject, though I have for several years endeavoured, through 
. the medium of my correspondents in the country of the Musco- 
gulge, or Creek-Indians, to obtain a specimen of the bird. I have 
no doubt that I shall ultimately be successful in my researches. 
In this case, I shall not fail to communicate something much 
more satisfactory on the subject to the Linnzan Society, whose 
pursuits are at all times highly interesting to me. | 
I shall only further observe at present, that should the Crying 
Bird prove to be a new species of Tantalus (I mean a species not 
noticed by any systematic ornithologist), it may be well to call 
it Tantalus Ephouskyca. This, I have already observed, is its In- 
dian name, the literal meaning of which has been mentioned. 
Ephous, or Ephaus, in the language of the Creek Indians, signifies 
a bird.—Nor will those who are well versed in the study of the 
oriental languages, fail to observe how close is.the affinity be- 
tween this word and the word for bird in the language of the an- 
cient Chaldeans: I may add, even in the Hebrew. ‘That this af- 
finity is not accidental, will appear more probable from what I am 
now to state; that the Creek and other North-American lan- 
guages contain many words that are most palpably derived from 
the Chaldaic, Hebrew, Persian, &c.* 
There is no reason to believe that the Tantalus Ephouskyca has 
* See my New Views, &c. Philadelphia, 1798. 
ever 
