318 ON THE IBIS. 



tured upon the plinth of the statue of the Nile, 

 at Belvedere, and upon the copy of it at the gar- 

 den of the Tuileries, they are not sufficiently 

 finished to serve as proofs ; but among the hiero- 

 glyphics of which the Institute of Egypt has 

 caused impressions to be made upon the spot, 

 there are several which distinctly represent our 

 bird. In plate iii. fig. 1, we give one of these 

 impressions which M. Geoffroy has had the po- 

 liteness to communicate to us. 



We insist particularly on this latter figure, 

 because it is the most authentic of all, having 

 been made at the time, and on the spot where 

 the ibis was worshipped, and being cotemporary 

 with its mummies ; while those which we have 

 cited above, having been made in Italy, and by 

 artists who did not profess the Egyptian worship, 

 might have been less faithful. 



We owe to Bruce the justice of saying, that 

 he recognised the bird which he describes under 

 the name of Abou-Hannes, as the true ibis. 

 He says expressly, that this bird appeared to him 

 to resemble that which the mummy pitchers con- 

 tained ; and further, that this Abou-Hannes, or 

 Father John, is very common on the banks of 

 the Nile, while he never saw there the bird re- 

 presented by Buffon, under the name of the 

 White Ibis of Egypt. 



M. Savigny, one of the naturalists of the ex- 



