3y6 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



are two species of the open-beak genus (i). 

 The one (ardea ponticeriana), which is white, 

 comes from India ; the other, which is black, 

 lives in the interior of Africa, north of the Cape. 

 This last is extremely remarkable for the feathers 

 of its breast and belly, which do not resemble 

 those of any- other bird ; their stems flattened 

 into thin and brilliant thongs are prolonged 

 much beyond the beards, and curl or twist into 

 a spire from their elasticity : it is a new spe- 

 cies recently brought by M. Leschenault de la 

 Tour. On the following shelves are three spe- 

 cies of tantalus ; one from America, one from 

 Ceylon, and the other from Senegal. Previous 

 to the researches of MM. Cuvier and Savigny, the 

 Senegal species, or the tantalus ibis, was looked 

 upon as the true ibis of the Egyptians ; it is not 

 even found in Egypt. Below the tantali are the 

 jabirus (inycteria, Linn.). These birds have the 

 same habits as the storks, from which they differ 

 chiefly in being of a larger size : they are found in 

 America and Africa living by the side of ponds, 

 and feeding on reptiles and fish. 



In the forty-fifth case we see, first, the spoon- 

 bills (platalea, Linn.), which are so named from 



(i) The open-beak (hians) has been thus named, because its two 

 mandibles, which form a crescent, touch each other only at the base 

 and point of the beak. 



