506 ARDEID^. 



united by a membrane as far as the first joint ; hind toe long and resting its 

 length on the ground. Wings moderate, the first quill feather shorter than the 

 second and third, which are the longest in the wing. 



There is good reason to believe that the Green, the 

 Glossy, and the Bay Ibis of authors, with the various syste- 

 matic names in use among ornithologists, refer only to various 

 states of the same bird, depending on age or season, the dif- 

 ference in appearance inducing the names. Colonel Montagu, 

 who paid great attention to the changes in the colours of 

 plumage dependant on age, sex, and season, appears to have 

 first pointed out the identity of these supposed species of 

 Ibis, and gives the details at considerable length in the sup- 

 plement to his Ornithological Dictionary. 



The appearance of the Glossy Ibis in this country, though 

 not uncommon, is still accidental ; the course of its migration 

 for the summer towards the north of Europe being consider- 

 ably to the eastward in a line from Egypt to Turkey, Hun- 

 gary and Poland, to the southern parts of Russia. It is also 

 occasionally seen on its passage from northern Africa in the 

 Grecian Archipelago, in Sicily, Sardinia and at Genoa. A 

 straggler is sometimes found in Switzerland, Provence, France 

 and Holland, but it is considered a rare bird. 



Three specimens have been killed in Ireland, as recorded 

 by N. A. Vigors, Esq. in the first volume of the Zoological 

 Journal. One occurred some years ago in Lancashire, and 

 is preserved in the collection of the Earl of Derby in that 

 county. According to Montagu " the Ibis is adopted as a 

 part of the arms of the town of Liverpool. This bird is 

 termed a Liver, from which that flourishing town derived 

 its name, and is now standing on the spot where the Pool 

 was, on the verge of which the Liver was killed."* 



* The arms of the town of Liverpool are comparatively modern, and seem to 

 have no reference to the Ibis. The bird has been adopted in the arms of the 

 Earl of Liverpool, and in a recent edition of Burke's Peerage is described as a 

 Cormorant holding in the beak a branch of sea-weed. In the Plantagenet seal 



