the Aniienl Egyptians. 6ty 



words are fufficient to prove that he was no better acquainted 

 with the ibis than others. 



The error which prevails at prefent in regard to the white 

 ibis, began with Perrault; who is even the firft perfon who 

 defcribed the tantalus ibis of the prefent time. This error, 

 adopted by Briffbn and Buffon, has paffed into the twelfth 

 edition of Linnaeus, where it is confounded with that of 

 Haffelquift, which had been inferted in the tenth, to form 

 with it a compound altogether monftrous. It was founded 

 on the very natural idea, that to devour ferpents, a lharp bill, 

 more or lefs analogous to that of the ftork or heron, was ne- 

 ceffary. This idea is even the only good objection that can 

 be made againft the identity of our bird and the ibis; for it 

 may be faid, How can a bird with a weak bill, fuch as the 

 curlew, be able to devour thefe dangerous ferpents ? 



But, befides that a reafon of thi« kind cannot hold out 

 againft pofitive proofs, i'uch as descriptions, figures, and 

 mummies ; befides that the ferpents from which the ibis 

 delivered Egypt were accounted exceedingly venomous, but 

 not as of a large fize ; I could anfwer dircclly, that the 

 mummified birds, which had a bill abfolutely fimilar to that 

 of our bird, were real devourers of ferpents; for I found in 

 one of their mummies the undigefted remains of the fkin 

 and fcales of ferpents, which I prefented to the Clafs. This 

 deftroys the objection that might be drawn from a pafTage of 

 Cicero, where he gives to the ibis a corneous and ftrong 

 bill : having never been in Egypt, he imagined, from fimple 

 analogy, that this muft be really the cafe. Our European 

 curlew, which has a bill ftill weaker than the ibis, devours 

 eels, as I have been affined by an eye-witnefs. 



I (hall conclude this memoir with announcing the refults. 

 The tantalus ibis of Linnaeus muft remain a feparate genus 

 with the tantalus locutator. Their character will be rojlrum 

 vahdum arcuatum, apice emarginatum. 



The other tantalus of the laft editions ought to form a 

 genus with the common curlew. We may give them the 

 name of numenius. Their character will be, rojlrum gracile, 

 arcuatum, apice injlatum. 



The ibis of the antients is not the ibis of Perrault and 



Buffon, 



