CHAP. XIV. FOOD OF THE IBIS. 221 



of Ibis of the ancients. The black, and the com- 

 mon Egyptian, Ibis were related to the curlews, 

 both having curved beaks. The Tantalus Ibis of 

 Linnaeus is indefinite, from its comprehending, as 

 Cuvier says, " four species of three different ge- 

 nera." * 



That the Ibis was of great use in destroying lo- 

 custs, serpents, scorpions, and other noxious crea- 

 tures which infested the country, is readily credited. 

 And its destruction of themt led to the respect 

 it enjoyed ; in the same manner as the stork was 

 honoured in Thessalyt, where it was a capital 

 offence to kill one of those birds. § Some have 

 doubted the bill of the Ibis having sufficient power 

 to destroy serpents ; and therefore, questioning the 

 accuracy of Herodotus's description of the birds, 

 which attacked them in the desert near Buto, have 

 suggested that they were of the Ardea kind. But 

 it is evident that the bill of the Ibis is sufficiently 

 strong for attacking serpents ll of ordinary size, 

 and well suited for the purpose. With regard to 

 the statement of Herodotus, nothing conclusive 

 can be derived from it ; his whole testimony, as 

 Cuvier observes, only proving that he saw a heap 

 of bones, without having ascertained, beyond re- 

 port, how they were brought to the spot. 



Bronze figures of the Ibis represent it attacking 

 snakes ; which, if not of ancient Egyptian, but of 



* Cuv. p. 329. + Pint, de Is. s. 75. 



% Plut. de Is. s. 74. § Plin. x. 23. 



II Some birds, as the secretary and others, attaCk snakes by striking 

 them with the edge of their pinions, and having stunned them, then use 

 their beaks. 



