92 WADING BIRDS. 



no longer capable of being substituted for facts, and the 

 naturalist contents himself with the humbler, but more 

 useful employment, of simply describing and delineating 

 nature, as it issued from the hands of its omnipotent Creator. 

 This superstition has also had its day, and the Ibis, no longer 

 venerated, even in Egypt, is in the autumn, commonly shot 

 and ensnared by the Arabs for food, and the markets of the 

 sea coast, are now abundantly supplied with them as game, 

 together with the white species, both of which are ignomin- 

 iously exposed for sale, deprived of their heads, a spectacle 

 from which the ancient Egyptians would have recoiled with 

 horror. So fickle and capricious, because unreasonable, is 

 the dominion of superstition. 



The Glossy, or Bay Ibis, is about 23 inches in length. The head 

 is of a blackish chestnut. Throat, breast, upper part of the back, 

 shoulder of the wing, and all the lower parts, of a bright reddish 

 chestnut. Back, rump, wing coverts, primaries, and tail feathers, of 

 a blackish green, with bronzy and purple reflections. Bill about -5 

 inches long, greenish black, brown towards the point. JVakcd space 

 round the eye, green, surrounded by a greyish band. Iris brown. 

 Feet and legs greenish brown. — Adult, the female is a little smaller. 

 In the young j)rcvious to the third year, the plumage of the head, 

 throat, and neck, is striped lengthwise with blackish brown, and 

 bordered with whitish. Lower part of the neck, breast, vent and 

 thighs of a greyish black ; top of the back and scapulars cinereous 

 brown ; with the green reflections on the wings and tail less lively. 

 In the young of the year, the plumage is still more tinged with black- 

 ish-ash ; and the white borders of the feathers of the head and neck 

 are wider. It is then the Tantalus viridis of Gmelin, &c. 



CURLEWS. (NuMENius, Briss. Temm.) 



In the birds of this genus, the bill is very long, slender, almost 

 cylindrical, a little compressed and curved : the upper mandible 

 longer, furrowed for three fourths of its length, and rounded towards 



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