ON THE IBIS. 315 



Let us iiow examine the books of the ancients 

 and their monuments ; let us compare what they 

 have said of the ibis, or the figures of it which 

 they have traced, with the bird which we have 

 been describing ; and we shall see all our diffi- 

 culties vanishing, and all the testimonies accord- 

 ing with what is best of all for the purpose, the 

 body itself of the bird preserved in the mummy. 



" The most common ibises," says Herodotus, 

 (Euterpe, No. 76.) " have the head and the fore- 

 part of the neck bare, the plumage white, except- 

 ing on the head, the nape, the ends of the wings 

 and of the rump, which are black. * Their beak 

 and feet are similar to those of the other 

 ibises." 



How does it happen that the travellers of our 

 times do not make so good descriptions of the 

 birds which they observe as that which Herodo- 

 tus has made of the ibis ? How could this de- 

 scription have been applied to a bird which has 

 only the face bare, and which has that part of a 

 red colour, to a bird which has the rump white, 

 and not covered over at least as ours by the black 

 feathers of the wings ? 



''i r *A>J TttV Xlfyothw , KCX,} TJjV dtlPW TTOKTOtV. AtVK*} TTTtgOlFi , 



xctt civffivos Kail oixpwv rav Trtlpvyotv, x-ett TTW/XIV 



Larcher, in his French translation of Herodotus, has pro- 

 perly understood the difference of the words oivftw, the 

 nape, and kip or %p the throat. 



