GLOSSY IBIS. 337 



the description of the bird did exist, and even a representation, 

 tolerably good, among their sculptured hieroglyphics, it could only be 

 because it was supposed that divine honors must have been the reward 

 of signal services that any dispute could ever arise on the subject. A 

 sacred bird must of course, it was concluded, be a great destroyer of 

 venomous animals, which the timid Ibis is not ; hence the misapplication 

 of the name. To such an extent did this idea prevail, and predominate 

 over all others, that Buffon, who could only feel contempt for the idle 

 tales related of the Ibis, so involved their true history as to attribute 

 to them the most violent antipathy to serpents, on which he supposed 

 they fed, and destroyed them by all possible means, and assigns to them 

 the habits of a species of Vulture. Others maintained, notwithstanding 

 its long and falcate bill, that it was in fact a Vulture, which was indeed 

 the most natural conclusion after they had begun by giving it such 

 habits. Cuvier himself, who cleared up and rectified everything else in 

 relation to the Ibis, because he found in a mummy some skins and 

 scales of serpents, most probably embalmed as companions, which was 

 frequently done with different kinds of animals, declared it a true 

 snake-eater. 



Two different kinds of Ibis were known to the ancients, and looked 

 upon by the Egyptians as sacred ; the White, common throughout 

 Egypt, and the Black, which was said to .be found only in a peculiar 

 district. It is the latter of which we are now to treat, a bird long 

 known to, but not recognised by naturalists ; whilst the white was only 

 rediscovered, in later times, by the courageous Abyssinian traveller 

 Bruce, who first among the moderns obtained correct notions respecting 

 it. Bruce's Ibis has been since proclaimed by Cuvier and Savigny the 

 true Ibis, in place of the Tantalus Ibis of Linn^, which he so called for 

 want of knowing the real Ibis, believing this to be it, though but very 

 seldom even found in Egypt. This opinion, which though more plausi- 

 ble than that which it superseded, was still erroneous, originated with 

 Perrault, and was adopted and maintained by Buffon, Brisson, Linn^, 

 Blumenbach, and all others until lately, when Colonel Grobert return- 

 ing from Egypt presented Fourcroy with mummies which enabled 

 Cuvier first to perceive that the Ibis was not a Tantalus, but a true 

 Ibis, which genus he did not then distinguish from Numenius. Savigny 

 in the year 1806 by an admirable work on the Ibis, put the question 

 at rest. 



The sacred White Ibis, though not in reality peculiar to Egypt, where 

 it is seen only at certain seasons of the year, does not however migrate 

 to far distant countries : it is spread throughout Africa, and species 

 extremely similar to it are found in India and Ceylon. But it is not 

 our province to treat of it, and it has already formed the subject of 

 several volumes. 



Vol. III.— 22 



