244 GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. 



feet. This bird, whose color is a uniform bright scarlet, is found in 

 South America and the West Indies. The white ibis, or white 

 curlew, whose plumage is pure white, is very common in the South- 

 ern Atlantic and Gulf States, occasionally straggling as far north 

 as New Jersey. Its flesh has a very fishy taste and is rarely eaten 

 except by the Indians. 



The glossy ibis, a smaller species, is about twenty-one inches 

 long. Its general color is chestnut-brown, with the back and top 

 of head metallic green, glossed with purple. It exists in great num- 

 bers in Mexico and has been found as far north as Massachusetts. 

 Of this genus there are about twenty species found in the warmer 

 parts of Africa, Asia and South America, one of which is the 

 Sacred Ibis of the Egyptians. It is about as large as a domestic 

 iowd, and is found throughout Northern Africa. 



REARED IN THE TEMPLES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 



This bird, which was reared in the temples of ancient Egypt 

 and was embalmed, frequents overflowed lands and dry plains and 

 feeds on frogs and small aquatic lizards. It is a migratory bird, 

 appearing simultaneously with the rise of the Nile and departing as 

 the inundation subsides. It is a remarkable fact, that the ibis does 

 not visit Egypt regularly any more as of old, breeding in the Soudan. 

 As soon as it arrives there it takes possession of its well-selected 

 breeding places, from which it undertakes excursions in search of 

 prey. It is not afraid of the natives and can often be seen among 

 the cattle herds picking up a s'rasshopper here and a frog or lizard 

 there. Dr. Brehm met, on his travels up the Blue Nile, so many of 

 this beautiful bird, that he was able to kill twenty of them within 

 two days. The female lays three to four white eggs of the size of 

 duck eggs. The bird is easily domesticated and is found in many 

 zoological gardens of Europe and America. 



In Egypt the ibis was regarded with great veneration by the 

 ancients, who kept them in their temples, and embalmed them after 

 their death ; thousands of their remains are still found in the burial 

 places amid the ruins of ancient Egypt. Various reasons have been 

 given for this custom, some saying that the ibis destroyed the 



