THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 73 



with both. They lived in a country which was then, as now, 

 plagued by insect pests, and their constant endeavour was to 

 protect themselves and their crops from these marauders. We 

 have no record of the time when they did not regard the Ibis 

 as one of their best friends. While they did not " canonize him 

 by the name of Jim Crow," they went as near it as they knew 

 how in those early days. They proclaimed him " sacred," reared 

 him in the temples with veneration, and made it a crime punish- 

 able at law to injure or destroy an Ibis, and after his death they 

 embalmed him. They erected monuments to his honour, and on 

 almost every mural decoration of theirs which we know the Ibis 

 is portrayed as the companion and friend of man. They also 

 named the bird " the father of the sickle." Unthinking persons 

 have suggested that this was because of the slightly curved beak 

 of the Ibis, but the Egyptians did not give a nickname for such a 

 silly reason as that. The Ibis was named the father of the sickle 

 because his actions in destroying insect life made the sickle 

 necessary to cut the crops, which would not have existed if the 

 Ibis had not held the locusts et hoc genus omne in check. To 

 what state Egypt would have been reduced if the Ibis had not 

 been protected, God only knows, but we have it on the best 

 authority that in spite of bad seasons there still " was corn in 

 Egypt." I write this introduction merely to show that the value 

 of the Ibis to the farmer is no new discovery, and that as we 

 occupy a country infested with similar insect plagues to those in 

 Egypt, and are blessed with the same means of combating them, 

 we should do everything in our power to protect these sacred 

 birds and encourage them to increase and multiply. I do not 

 purpose to write of the Ibis from a scientific point of view, but 

 merely to draw attention to the bird as an active and constant 

 friend to the farmer, the grazier, and the gardener. 



Other insectivorous birds, from the Bustard to the Blue Wren, 

 feed on insects all the year round, but the insects increase in 

 spite of them until a visitation of Ibis takes place. When the 

 Ibis come in numbers to a district they remain until they have 

 completely cleaned off all insect life which they can reach, and 

 so that district is allowed to bear crops for several years free, or 

 almost free, from the depredations of local insects. Of course the 

 locust, which comes from a distance, may cause damage, but the 

 cricket, the take-all, the harvest caterpillar, and other dire 

 enemies of the farmer will not be noticed. Those of us who have 

 observed the methods of the Ibis, know how thoroughly they 

 work a district so as to be sure they have completed their mission 

 and devoured all there is for them to eat. Watch a flock of Ibis 

 on an autumn day on ground which is cracked by the heat of the 

 previous summer, and where the crickets have effected a lodg- 

 ment. Before the birds come the land is alive with these 



