BIRDS. 315 



Rnimals that infest it ; yet it is much dou1)ted whether this be 

 the same ibis to which tlie ancients paid their adoration. Mail- 

 let, the French consul at Cairo, observes, that it is very hard to 

 determine what bird the ancient ibis certainly was, because there 

 are cranes, storks, hawks, kites, and falcons, that are all equally 

 enemies to serpents, and devour a vast number. He farther 

 adds, that in the month of May, when the winds begin to blow 

 from the internal parts of Africa, there are several sorts of birds 

 that come down from Upper Egypt, from whence they are 

 driven by the rains, in search of a better habitation, and that it 

 is then tliey do this country such signal services. Nor does the 

 figure of this bird, hieroglyphically represented on their pillars, 

 mark it sufficiently to make the distinction. Besides, the mo- 

 dem ibis is not peculiar to Egypt, as it is to be seen but at cer- 

 tain seasons of the year ; whereas we are informed by Pliny, 

 that this bird was seen no where else. It is thought, therefore, 

 that the true ibis is a bird of the vulture kind, described above, 

 and called by some the capon of Pharaoh, which not only is a 

 devourer of serpents, but will follow the caravans that go to 

 JMecca, to feed upon the offal of the animals that are killed on 

 the journey.* 



* That a bird so Iiiglily cclelrated in mythological history as the ibis of an- 

 cient Egypt, incessantly represented on the early monuments of the country 

 H-hich it still inhabits, and transmitted to us in ahnost infinite numbers in 

 the shape of mummies from a remote aiitiquity, should have been widely 

 mistaken by every modern writer until witliin the l;ist lifty years, is indeed 

 matter of aitonislunent ; but such is really the fact. Belon, an excellent 

 o^nilhologi^t, who visited Kgypt about the middle of the sixteenth century, 

 imagined that the stork was the true ibis of the ancients : Pocock niaiu- 

 tiUned that the latter was a species of Crane : and I)e r.Imllet conjectiued 

 that under the name of iliis were generically comprehended all those birds 

 which are instrumeiital i[i removing the noxious reptiles that swarm in tho 

 inundated lands. Teiranlt first introduced the erroneous notion that tho 

 ibis of iuiticiuity was a species of Tantalus, in which lie was followed impli- 

 fitly by naturalists throughout the whole of the la^t century. Brisson, 

 liuifun, Linuxus, and Latluun, all united to give it currency ; and the Tan. 

 talus ibis of the two latter authors was uuiversally regarded as the sacred 

 bird. 



Our adventurous countryman Bruce was the first to throw a doubt upoi' 

 the authenticity of this determination, and to point (nit tlie identity between 

 the figures represented on the ancient monuments, tin' mnminies preserveti 

 iu tlic Egyptian tombs, and a living bird common on the hanks of tlie Nile 

 and known to tlii! Arabs liy the name of Ahou llannes. But it wax not 

 until after the return of llie I"rencli expediliou Moni Kgypt that tho <iihir. 



2 D '<i 



