ON THE IBIS. 309 



may be considered as generic, are absolutely the 

 same. 



We must therefore search for the true ibis, not 

 among those tantaluses of large size and sharp 

 beak, but among the curlews ; and, let it be ob- 

 served, that, by the name curlew, we intend to 

 signify, not the artificial genus formed by Latham 

 and Gmelin, of all the wading birds which have 

 the beak curved downwards, but a natural genus, 

 to which we shall give the name of Numenius* 

 and which will comprehend all the waders with 

 beaks curved downwards, soft and rounded, whe- 

 ther their head be bare or clothed with feathers. 

 It is the genus courlis, such as Buffon imagined 

 it* 



A glance over the collection of birds belonging 

 to the royal cabinet, has enabled us to distinguish 

 a species, which is neither named nor described in 

 the works of systematic writers, excepting per- 

 haps by Dr Latham ; and which, when carefully 

 examined, will be found to correspond with all 

 that the ancients, the monuments and mummies, 

 indicate as characteristic of the ibis. 



We here present a figure of it, Plate v. It 

 is a bird somewhat larger than the curlew ; its 

 beak is arcuate like that of the curlew, but a little 



* We have definitively established this genus in our 

 " Regne Animal," t. i. p. 483, and it appears to have been 

 adopted by naturalists. 



