On the Antient Egyptian Ills* 6l 



in the bifhopric of Lubec, and that he was twenty -three 

 years of age. 



[To be concluded in the next Number.] 



VIII. Memoir on the Ibis of the Antient Egyptians, By? 



C. ClJVIER*. 



JLAERY one has heard of the Ibis, a bird to which the 

 antient Egyptians paid divine honours ; images of which 

 they placed in their temples ; which they fuffered to wander 

 about unmoleded in their cities ; which they embalmed with 

 as much care as they did their relations ; to which they 

 afcribed virginal purity, and an inviolable attachment to 

 a country of which it was the emblem, and the figure of 

 which the gods would have affumed, had they been forced to 

 adopt one mortal. 



No animal ous;ht to have been ib eafy to be diflinguiihed, 

 for there is none of which thev have left fo many excellent 

 descriptions, correct coloured figures, and even the bird? 

 themielves carefully preferved with their feathers, under the 

 triple covering of that ftrong preferver bitumen, thick and 

 clofe bandages, and of ftrong vafes well covered with maftic. 

 Yet among all the modern authors who have fpoken of the 

 ibis, there is none but Bruce, a traveller celebrated by his 

 courage and his knowledge of natural hiftory, who has 

 avoided error in regard to the real (pedes of this bird ; and 

 yet his ideas, however correct, have not been adopted by 

 naturalifts. 



After feveral changes, of opinion refpedting the ibis, na- 

 turalifts at prefent feem to agtee in giving this appellation to 

 a bird, a native of Africa, nearly of the fize of the ftork, with 

 white plumage, and the wing feathers black ; raifed on long 

 red legs, and armed with a long bent bill, (harp at the edges, 

 indented at the extremity, round at its bafe, and of a pale yel- 

 low colour, and having its face covered with a yellow flcin^ 

 <ieftitute of feathers, and not extending beyond the eyes. 



* Journal dc I'iyJijKe, Fruftidor,. an. 2. 



Such 



