ON THE IBIS. 317 



pi. xi. no. 1.) This last figure is even so like 

 our bird represented in pi. v., that it might be 

 said that it was taken from it. 



The paintings of Herculaneum no longer leave 

 any doubt on the subject. Plates 138 and 140 

 of David's edition, and vol. ii. p. 315, pi. 59, and 

 p. 321, pi. 60 of the original edition, which re- 

 present Egyptian ceremonies, shew several ibises 

 walking in the court of the temples. The cha- 

 racteristic blackness of the head and neck are in 

 particular recognised, and it is easily seen from 

 the proportion which their figure bears to the 

 persons in the painting, that it must have been a 

 bird of half a metre at the most, and not of a 

 metre, or thereabouts, like the Tantalus ibis. 



The mosaic of Palestine, also presents in its 

 middle part several ibises perched upon buildings. 

 They differ in nothing from those of the paint- 

 ings of Herculaneum. A Sardonyx of Dr 

 Mead's Collection, copied by Shaw, App. pi. v., 

 and representing an ibis, seems to be a miniature 

 of the bird which we have described. A medal 

 of Adrian, in large bronze, represented in the 

 Farnesian Museum, vol. vi. pi. xxviii. fig. 16, 

 and another of the same emperor, in silver, repre- 

 sented in vol. iii. pi. vi. fig. 9, afford figures of 

 the ibis, which, notwithstanding their smallnes s, 

 are pretty like our bird. 



With regard to the figures of the ibis, sculp- 



