410 Ardeidce. 



record quite a recent occurrence, as one was shot at Codford by 

 Mr. Cole, of that parish, on a chimney-stack on his premises, on 

 September 5th, 1882, and is now in that gentleman's possession. 

 Our English word ' Stork/ and the German Storch and Swedish 

 Stork, may perhaps signify stark, ' the strong one,' from o-repeo?, 

 ' firm ' ; or perhaps ' the tall one/ from the Anglo-Saxon steale, 

 1 high ' ; for f stork ' and ' stalk ' appear to have the same deriva- 

 tioa (See Skeat's Dictionary in loco.) In France, Cicogne 

 blanche; in Italy, Cicogna bianca ; in Spain, Ciguena ; in 

 Portugal, Cegonha ; but the origin of the specific word ciconia, 

 (which is classical Latin for Stork) is unknown. 



149. GLOSSY IBIS (Ibis fakinellus). 



The long arched beak of this bird, with a blunt rounded tip, 

 at once commands recognition, and its dark brown plumage, 

 glossed with a metallic lustre of green and purple reflections, 

 equally arrests attention. Sir R. Payne-Gallwey says that the 

 plumage of a recently-killed specimen is a beautiful shade of 

 shadowy black -green, and that it soon fades, but for some time 

 resembles in its metallic sheen the body of a large fly or beetle.* 

 Moreover, the portion of the head from the beak to the eyes is 

 quite bare of feathers, and the naked skin is of a green colour. 

 It is the only species really known in Europe, for though the 

 celebrated Sacred Ibis (/. religlosa) has obtained a place in Mr. 

 Bree's excellent work,-)- yet the author candidly owns that its 

 right to figure there is extremely doubtful; moreover, it is so 

 rare even in Egypt, that only an occasional straggler, at long 

 intervals, appears in that classic land : and the black and white 

 Ibis (' the Father of the Bills/ as the Arabs expressively term it) 

 must be sought for in Abyssinia, or still nearer the equator. 

 The Glossy Ibis, though certainly an uncommon bird, is not 

 amongst our rarest visitors, as scarcely a year passes without the 

 notice of the occurrence of one or more in different parts of 

 England, the fenny districts of Cambridgeshire, Lincoln and 



* ' The Fowler in Ireland,' p. 238. 



t ' The Birds of Europe not observed in the British Isles,' vol. iv., p. 45. 



