ARDEID.E. 455 



insects^ and snails. Some species frequent the 

 plains and open dry places, subsisting chiefly on 

 insects and worms ; while others have been ob- 

 served standing on the decayed trunks of trees as 

 they float down the streams, watching the approach 

 of fish, on which they pounce with their long bills. 

 Having satisfied their hunger, they usually perch 

 on the exposed and elevated branches of the neigh- 

 bouring tree^, where they stand in an erect posture, 

 resting their heavy bill upon their breast : in such 

 situations they are extremely cautious and watchful. 

 Their flight is usually performed in sweeps high up 

 in the air ; but when migrating, which they often do 

 in search of food, or on the change of season, they 

 usually arrange themselves in two lines diverging 

 from a leader. Their nest is placed on some lofty 

 tree, or, by some species, upon the ground in marshy 

 places. 



The t}qoical species, — 



The Egyptian Ibis (Gerouticus .Ethiopicm), is also 

 called " the Sacred Ibis," because it figures largely in an 

 evidently sacred character on the hieroglyphics of ancient 

 Egypt. It is a migratory bird, arriving in Egyj^t as so(jn 

 as the waters of the Nile begin to rise, and reaiaming in 

 that land until the waters have subsided, and thereby 

 deprived it of its daily supplies of food. The bird, indeed, 

 probably owes its sacred character to the fact that its 

 appearance is coincident with the rising of the Nile, an 

 annual phenomenon on which depends the prosperity of 

 the whole country. Sometimes the Ibis stalks in solitaiy 

 state along the banks of the river, or the many water- 

 courses that intersect the low country, but sometimes 

 associates in little flocks of eight or ten in number. Its 

 food consists mostly of mollusks, both terrestrial and 

 aquatic ; but it will eat worms and insects, and probably 

 small reptiles. The Ibis was, at one time, thought to 

 kill and eat snakes, and this idea was strengthened by 

 the fact that Cuvier detected the scales and bones of 

 snakes within a mummied corpse of an Ibis ; recent 

 specimens, however, seldom contain anythmg but mol- 

 lusks and insects. Some species of Ibis feed entirely on 



