3Z2 ON THE IBIS. 



must be a carnivorous one ; and, in fact, we see 

 from Bruce's figure (Vol. v. p. 191. of the French 

 edition), that Pharaoh's fowl is nothing else than 

 the rachama or the small white vulture with black 

 wings (Vultur perenopterus, Linn.) a bird very 

 different from what we have proved above to be 

 the ibis. 



Pokocke says that it appears, from the de- 

 scriptions which are given of the ibis, and from 

 the figures which he has seen of it in the temples 

 of Upper Egypt, that it was a species of Crane. 

 I have seen, he adds, a number of these birds in 

 the islands of the Nile ; they were for the most 

 part greyish *. These few words suffice to prove 

 that he did not know the ibis better than the 

 others. 



The learned have not been more happy in their 

 conjectures than the travellers. Middle ton refers 

 to the ibis, a bronze figure of a bird, of which the 

 beak is arched, but short, the neck very long, and 

 the head furnished with a small crest, a figure 

 which never had any resemblance to the bird of 

 the Egyptians f . This figure is, besides, not at all 

 in the Egyptian style, and Middleton himself 



* Antiq. Monum. PI. x. p. 129- 



t Hist, Anim. lib. ix. cap, xxvii, and lib, x. cap. xxx, 



