Of the Ibis. 6s 



to be met with. For this Author confefles he never faw the Black 

 Ibis ; and the JVhite Ibis, the only other Species, is not taken 

 Notice of at all. The large crooked Bill, afcribed to the Bel- 

 fery, (p. 109.) with which he fays they can take their Food only 

 out of the JVater, mult be of a different Form and Strudure 

 from that of the lbis\ which is indeed crooked, but with 

 which it was known to prey upon Serpents, Locufts, and other 

 aerial and terreftrial Animals '. The Curvature therefore of The r^-^ dif- 



_ . .,, -x r -I ferent from 



their refpective Bills ; and confequently the Bills and the ^he Beifery. 

 Birds themfelves, cannot be the fame as this Author feems 

 to infinuate. The Bill of the Thoenicopterus is ftrong and 

 irregularly crooked ; but for want of other Charadlerifticks, 

 I dare not fo far interfere, as to make It and the Beljery to 

 be the fame Bird. 



By the Skeleton of an embalmed Ibis, which I brought with An embaim- 

 me from Egypt, I find the upper part of the Bill (for the lower fcribed. via. 

 is mouldred away,) to be fliaped exactly like that of the Nu-?l'v^' *' 

 menius or Curlew's. The ^s^'^ttov 'C^-^wnoi therefore of the 

 Greeks ^ , and the Roflri aduncitas, afcribed to the Ibis, by 

 Latin Authors % do not feem rightly to exprefs this Arch-like 

 Curvature of the Bill. They rather infinuate the Figure of it 

 to be, what it adlually is not, the fame, as in the Eagle and 

 other Birds of Prey. No lefs improperly does it feem to have 

 been defcribed by Tully % in giving to it a horny and likewife 

 a long and flraight Bill, as procerum may denote. For this, 

 I am fpeaking of, is fix Inches long, half an Inch wide, and 

 near an Inch in breadth. It is fo far from being a horny or 

 ftrong Bill, as that Word may intimate ; that it only confifts 

 of two thin Tubes, laid one upon the other; well joyned toge- 

 ther indeed, though of too little Strength and Solidity, to 

 tear a Carcafs in Pieces, or to do fuch Ads of Violence, as the 

 much ftronger Bills of the Crane, the Stork or the Heron, are 

 able to perform. The thigh Bone is five and the Tibia fix 



1 Tiii' f/jK "iCfx -^^mimy tmaQtiv <5re.«V 75 Tui 'ifM j^ tu( aKti/af, i^ tuV )(g.fxmf, D'tod. Sic. Bibl. 



1- I- P; yy- . „ 



2 Mt^£«l'a S'fivai Tmsm, ffKtKiix eAI fofEH yc^i-nt v^Jumy Ji Is -nyAht^ ^^^vmvt ff >*■&©'> 'o<rst Kf«f. 



Herod. Eut. p. 132. 



3 Simile quiddam & volucrls in eadem Egypto monftravit, quae vocatur J^;^, roftri ad- 

 uncitate per cam partem fe perlucns, qua reddi ciborum onera maxime falubre elt. Plin. 

 Hift. Nac. 1. 8. cap. 27. 



4 Ues maximam vim ferpcntium conficiunt, cum fint aves excelfa;, cruribus rigidis, 

 forneo proceroquc roftro. De Nat. Deor. 1. i. p. 210. Ed, Lamb. 



R Inches 



