( 375 ) 



eremitii for a Ions; time, for we lind it subsequently only quoted us a syuonym of 

 Pi/rrhocora:c graculus (L.)— f'^'" example, also in Dresser's Birds of Europe, IV. 

 p. 437. 



The first naturalists who rediscovereil the bird were Ehreuberg and Hemprich, 

 who shot two specimens near fTomfnda, on the Arabian coast. They were mounted 

 in the Berlin Museum, with the name [hi.s i-omdln Ehreuberg on the stand, but 

 this name was not published, nor did a diagnosis appear until 1845, when Uiiiqiell 

 gave a good figure and description of it in S>/xt. Vchc.rs. Viii). X.O. Aj'nkcis. 

 Eiippeirs figure, drawn by \Volf, was copied as bad as possible iu Reichenbach's 

 Grallatores as Comatibis comata about 1850. A plate, of course much inferior 

 to Wolf's, was published in 185U by Levaillaut jun. as Ibis calcus, and Loche 

 (1867) describes it under the name of Comatibis comata, saying that he met with 

 it near Boghar, where it was resident. It nested in high, almost inaccessible rocks, 

 laying two or three eggs, which are bluish white with mostly faint rufous marks. 

 Its food consists of insects and suchlike tilings. In the same country Canon Tristram 

 found it in 1850, on the rocky ridges beyond Bou Guizonn, on the road to El 

 Aghonat. He says of it : " Unlike the rest of its famOy, it resorts to the most 

 arid and desolate mountain ranges, wliere it consorts with the raven and falcon. 

 Its food consists of lizards and serjjents. It breeds iu inaccessible holes of the 

 precipices, which I was unable to reach, though I saw the birds going in and 

 out. . . ."" 



The bird was also collected and noticed in N.E. Africa by Henglin, Blanford, 

 and others, and Henglin described for tlie first time the young, which have the 

 whole head and neck covered with short dirty whitish feathers, speckled rusty 

 and brown. 



Mr. C. G. Dautbrd afterwards had a splendid opportunity for observing this 

 bird in a new locality, i.e. at Birejik on the Euphrates, and he gave Mr. Dresser 

 excellent notes, which we find published in the liird.'t of Europe. Afterwards Canon 

 Tristram again collected the liird in Birejik, and published most valuable and 

 interesting notes about it in the Ibis, 1882. These observations agree wonderfully 

 with old Gesner's notes from Switzerland. They inform us that these birds breed 

 in company on high cliffs and on the walls of the old Saracenic castle of Birejik, 

 where they are never disturbed because considered sacred by the Mohammedans. 

 Their food consists of beetles, orthoptcra, and reptiles. Tristram also describes the 

 young as follows : " Instead of the bony protuberance at the back of the skull and 

 the bare red skin, the base of tlie skull i)resented no ]>eculiar development, and the 

 whole head was covered to the base of the bill with thick short feathers, mottled 

 black and white." 



From all that we have said so far, we can only come to the following 

 conclusions : — 



(1) That the birds desi-ribcd as ('oreus s>/ifaficus, Phalacrocorax from 

 Illyria, etc., by the older writers are the same as the Ibis comuta of modern 

 authors. 



(2) That this bird formerly inhabited parts of Europe, but that it had evidently 

 disappeared from our continent before the end of the last century. 



The more important synonymy and literature of the species (catalogues and 

 other books in which tlie name only was mentioned not being quoted) will tiius be 

 as follows : — 



