66 Memoir on the Ibis of 



walking in the courts of the temples : they are perfectly 

 fimilar to the bird which we have pointed out: we may in 

 particular obferve in them the ehara&eriftic blacknefs ot the 

 heau and neck; and it may be readily fcen, by comparing 

 their fize with that of the perfonages in the paintings, that 

 it mutt have been a bird of about half a yard in height at 

 moft, and not a yard, like the tantalus ibis. 



The mofaic of Paleftrine exhibits alfo in its middle part 

 feveral ibifes perched on buildings, and which are in nothing 

 different from thofe of the paintings of Herculaneum. Afar- 

 donyx in the cabinet of Dr. Mead, copied by Dr. Shaw *, 

 and reprefenting an ibis, feems to be a miniature of the bird 

 which we are defcribing. A large bronze medal of Adrian, 

 an engraving of which is given in the Mufaeum de Farnefe, 

 and another of the fame emperor of filver f, exhibit figures 

 of the ibis, which, notwithstanding their final! fize, have a 

 great refcmbtance to the bird in qucftion. 



In regard to the figures fculptured on the plinth of the 

 ftatue of the Nile at the Belvedere, and in the copy of it in 

 the garden of the Thuilleries, they are not well enough 

 finifhed to ferve as proofs; but we {till have a fufficient 

 number to obviate every doubt. 



We mint do Bruce the jufticc to fay that he difcovered thfc 

 real ibis J. [lis abou-bannes, compared with the bird we 

 have defcribed, is fo fimilar, that it is hardly poffible not to 

 confider it as of the fame fpecies : and this traveller fays ex- 

 prefsly, that it feemed to him to referable thofe contained in 

 the repofitories of the mummies. He fays alfo, that this 

 abou-bannis, or Father John, is very common on the banks 

 of the Nile; while the bird reprefented by Buffon under the 

 name of the white Egyptian ibis, was never feen there by 

 him. This abou-bannes has been inferred by Latham, in his 

 Index QrnitbologicuS) under the name of Tantalus iEthio- 

 picus ; but he does not fpeak of the conjecture of Bruce re- 

 fpecling its identity with the ibis. 



* Appendix, Plate V. 



f Mufaeum de Farnefe, Vol. VI. Plate XXVIII. fig. 6.; and 

 Vol. II I. Plate VI. tig. n, 



1 Vol. V. u. i7z. En^lifli edition. 



All 



