$4 Memoir en the Ibis of 



from the mummy of fome bird different from the ibis ; or 

 that the draftfman enlarged the proportions *. 



It was neceffary, therefore, to feek for the real ibis fome- 

 where elfe than among thefe birds of the tantalus kind, of a 

 great height and with a fliarp bill. In viewing the collection 

 of birds, which Lacepede has arranged in inch beautiful 

 order in the Mufieum of Natural Hiftorv, we difcovered a 

 fpecies, never before mentioned or defcribed in any of the 

 fyflematic authors except Latham, and which alone corre- 

 sponds to every thing indicated to us, by antient authors, 

 'monuments, and mummies, as characters of the ibis. 



It is reprefented in the annexed figure (Date III.) ; it is a 

 bird of the fize of the curlew ; its bill is fimilar to that of 

 the curlew, but proportionally a little fhorter, and of a black 

 colour; two-thirds of its head from the neck are bare of fea- 

 thers, and covered with iliort black down ; the plumage of 

 the body, wings, and tail, is a dirty white, except the tips of 

 the large wing feathers, which are black, and thole of the 

 lower part of the back, which are of the fame colour, and, 

 being long, fall over the tips of the wings when they are 

 folded. The feet are black, and like thofe of the curlew. 



The individual in queftion formed part of the ftadtholder's 

 collection, but we are unacquainted with its native country. 

 Defmoulins, who has teen two others, afiures us that they were 

 both brought from Senegal ; one of them was even brought 

 from that country by Geoffroy dc Villeneuve : but, befides 

 thst the climate of Senegal is in nothing different from that 

 of the Nile, we fliall fee hereafter that Bruce found this fp'e- 

 eics in abundance in Egypt; and I imagine that the moderns 

 will not admit, without fome latitude, the alfertion of the 

 *ntients, that the jbis never quilted that (acred land. 



r Since I read this memoir, C. Olivier had the goodnefs to fhow me 

 she bones which he took f:om two mummies of the ibis, and to open with 

 us two others. Thefe bones were fimilar to thofe in the mummies of 

 General Grobert: one of the four only were fmalier, but it was eafily 

 sjferved by the epiphytes that they had belonged to a young individual. 

 C. Olivier ihowed us alfo a bill two-thirds longer than thofe found 

 commonly in mummies of the ibis •, but this bill, however, was perfectly 

 similar to that of the curlew ; and in particular to that of the black ibis 

 vi Bcloa; hut in t.o manner to that of the tantalus, 



Befides, 



