336 GLOSSY IBIS. 



art, so much indeed that it is by no means easy to lay the parts bare 

 for inspection without injuring them. Space appears to have been con- 

 sidered of much value in preparing these mummies, and every means was 

 used to secure them within the least possible compass, by bending and 

 folding the limbs one upon another. The neck is twisted so as to bring 

 the crown of the head on the body, a little to the left of the stomach, 

 the curved bill with its convexity upward is placed between the feet, 

 thus reaching beyond the extremity of the tail : each foot with its four 

 claws turned forward, one bent upward and elevated on each side of the 

 head ; the wings brought close to the sides, much in their natural 

 position. In separating them to discover the interior, nothing of the 

 viscera nor any of the soft parts remain, the bones exhibit no traces of 

 muscle or tendon adhering to them, and the joints separate at the least 

 touch. Most of these mummies, it must be admitted, are not of the 

 species of which we are writing (and which also is but seldom repre- 

 sented hieroglyphically), but of the white kind, which was more vene- 

 rated, the Ibis religiona of Cuvier ; and some authors even deny that a 

 well authenticated Black Ibis has ever been unwrapped. Complete 

 birds even of the white species are extremely rare. Cuvier obtained 

 the entire skeleton from an embalmed subject, and Dr. Pearson was so 

 fortunate as to discover the perfect bird in two brought among other 

 mummies from Thebes. They have been accurately described in the 

 scientific journals of England under the name of true Egyptian or 

 Theban Ibis. The Egyptian Ibis of Latham is however nothing but 

 the Tantalus Ibis. 



Buffon by means of his mummies was enabled to verify the real size 

 of the Ibis, and as he found two bills entire among those he examined, 

 he settled the genus to which the sacred bird belonged, and stated very 

 correctly that its place was between the Stork and the Curlew, where 

 later naturalists have arranged it. But it is to be regretted that a pre- 

 conceived opinion should have so blinded him that he could not see the 

 furrows of the upper mandible, Avhich do exist in a very eminent degree, 

 as I have personally ascertained, notwithstanding his statements to the 

 contrary, in making which he must have had before him the bill of the 

 Tantalus, which he mistook for the Ibis. These furrows it is of the 

 more consequence to note, inasmuch as they form the principal discri- 

 mination between the genera Tantalus and Ibis, and serve to put an 

 end to a controversy to which the sacred Ibis has given rise. 



Although every traveller in Egypt has used his exertions to collect 

 all the facts relative to a bird which plays such a part in the sacred 

 legends of that country, a bird associated with so many of the wonders 

 of antiquity, yet it was for a long period a question among naturalists 

 and scholars to what species the name of Ibis was properly to be ap- 

 plied. As, however, contrary to the general practice of the ancients, 



