ICE PLANT ICHNEUMON. 



81P 



the bill and feet are also black, and so is the naked 

 skin on the head and neck. These birds are very 

 common in the central parts of Africa, and also in 

 that part of the valley of the Nile which is liable to 

 be flooded. Sometimes they are found solitary, and 

 at other times they are found in groups, but seldom 

 more than ten or twelve are in close society with 

 each other. A number of these little groups are, 

 however, often found close to each other, especially 

 after the water of the Nile has begun to subside, and 

 the banks are for some extent covered with soft mud. 

 This mud they search with the most patient industry 

 with their bills; and in moving about while on the 

 ground they do not hop and run nimbly as the 

 curlews do, but march along with measured steps; 

 when on the wing they project the head forwards and 

 the feet backwards ; but there is not the same majesty 

 in their aerial journeys as there is in those of the 

 storks and cranes, neither do they extend their mi- 

 gration so far to the northward. Their flight is 

 powerful, however, and they rise to a great ele- 

 vation. 



It does not appear that there is a very great deal 

 of foundation for that clearing of the country of poi- 

 sonous reptiles, on account of which the Egyptians 

 are said to have held the ibis in such veneration ; for 

 the chief ground adduced for this propensity in the 

 old account given by Herodotus, is the antipathy 

 which the ibis had to the serpent race. In conse- 

 quence of this the bird is said to have acted the part 

 of a sort of preventive service, to hinder the serpents 

 from smuggling themselves into the Egyptian terri- 

 tory. Now this is so contrary to the whole tenor of 

 animal conduct, that it can hardly, in the nature of 

 things, be true. Animals do not kill each other from 

 what we call antipathy, unless in the case of those 

 males which fight battles of gallantry for their females 

 we believe the propensity goes no farther ; and the 

 greater number of them, whether mammalia or birds, 

 are vegetable feeders, and never kill other animals 

 for the sake of eating. On the other hand, we believe 

 there is no animal which kills, or even offers to injure, 

 any other species, except for the purpose of feeding 

 on that species; and, therefore, if the ibis have been 

 a serpent-feeder, it must have eaten the reptiles from 

 liking them, and not from antipathy to them. Besides, 

 there are not in those places of the country to which 

 chiefly the ibis resorts, very many serpents for the 

 birds to eat, either from liking or disliking. Water 

 serpents are not, we believe, very numerous in the 

 Nile ; and the land serpents of Egypt are chiefly, if 

 not exclusively, found in the dry and sandy places in 

 which the ibis seldom if ever seeks its food ; besides, 

 the bill of the ibis is not of a very serpent- killing 

 character ; for though it is stouter and harder than 

 the bills of the true snipes, and even than that of the 

 curlews, it is still a bill of the same class. Birds 

 with the more characteristic bill of this form feed 

 chiefly upon small mollusca, and other little animals 

 which they find on the moist surface of the ground, 

 or in the sludge ; and so far as has been observed in 

 modern times, the ibis seeks its food in similar places, 

 and hence we may conclude, that it feeds on sub- 

 stances of a similar kind. Birds which do feed on 

 serpents are always very long in the tarsi, which is 

 not the case with the ibis, and they also have powerful 

 bills. Cultrirostral birds, such as cranes and storks, 

 and the other birds of that family, are more likely to 

 perform this office than such a bird as the ibis. It 



may be true, however, that the America species of 

 tantalus, which is a hard-billed bird, and does eat 

 reptiles, may have been confounded with the ibis in 

 ancient times, as it has sometimes been by modern 

 naturalists. 



GLOSSY IBIS (7. falcinella). This is a much more 

 discursive bird than the preceding species ; and 

 though it ranges over the tropical countries, and 

 appears to have its head-quarters there, yet it makes 

 excursions over a considerable part of Europe. The 

 characters are : the head, the neck, the front of the 

 body, and the sides of the back, of a beautiful chestnut 

 colour ; the upper part of the back, the wings, and 

 the tail, are of a bronze or golden-green, as the dif- 

 ferent shades of light reflect upon them. The bill is 

 greenish black, and the tip brown ; the irides are also 

 green, and the legs are greenish brown. It is about 

 twenty-three inches in length. The young have the 

 head, throat, and neck feathers striped with blackish 

 brown before they reach their third year. These 

 feathers by this time are also margined with white. 

 The breast, the belly, the thighs, and the under 

 part of the neck are of a black ash colour, the upper 

 part of the back and scapularies brownish ash, and 

 the golden green reflections of the wings are of a 

 duller hue than in the adult birds. It haunts the 

 margins of the lakes and rivers, and visits, in passing, 

 Poland, Hungary, Turkey, and the Archipelago. It 

 is also met with on the banks of the Danube, and 

 frequently in Switzerland and Italy, and occasionally, 

 though more rarely, in Holland and the British 

 islands. It is not uncommon in Egypt, where it 

 appears as a regular visitant at that season when 

 water birds resort in such numbers to reap their por- 

 tion of the harvest of the Nile. As a European bird, 

 however, it belongs much more to the eastern migra- 

 tion between the valley of the Danube and the rivers 

 of central Asia, than to the southern migration. Its 

 breeding places are not correctly known ; but they 

 are understood to be chiefly iu Asia. The food con- 

 sists of insects, worms, fresh-water mollusca, and 

 occasionally vegetable substances ; and from the ge- 

 neric resemblance that there is between them, there 

 is every reason to believe that the food of the Egyp- 

 tian species is the same. The young of this species 

 have sometimes been described as a different one, 

 under the name of the green ibis. Indeed the names 

 ibis and tantalus have been so habitually given to 

 the same birds, that there is a great deal of uncer- 

 tainty about both genera. There is no doubt, how- 

 ever, that Cuvier is correct in ranging tantalus 

 among the birds which have knife-shaped or trenchant 

 bills, which are capable of mastering animals of con- 

 siderable power; and ibis among those which have 

 long bills fitted for dabbling. In the present genus 

 the bill is not so completely covered with sentient 

 membrane as in some of the others; but still there is 

 no doubt that the lining of the nasal groves is an 

 organ of sense. We shall have occasion to revert to 

 the place of these birds in the system when we come 

 to the article TANTALUS. 



ICE PLANT is the Mesembryanthemum crys- 

 tallmum of Linnaeus, a curious annual, very fre- 

 quently seen in our green-houses. The plant belongs 

 to the natural order Ficoidece. 



ICHNEUMON (Mangusta). A genus of ^car- 

 nivorous mammalia belonging to the family of Viver- 

 ridcB. The characters are : six incisors, two canines, 

 and twelve grinders in each jaw. Three of those in 

 F F F 2 



