MEXICAN IBIS. &^ 



An Account of an American Species of the Genus Tanta- 

 lus or Ibis. By George Ord, Bead July 8, 1817, 



MEXICAN IBIS, 



Tantalus Mexicanus? 



Mexican Ibis, Lath. Gen, Syn. 3, part I, p. 108. — 



Tantalus Mexicanus, idem, Ind, Orw. p. 704. Linn. 



Gmel. 1, p. G52. VAcalot, ^\:yy, Sonnini, tome 



58, p. 267. 



On the 7th May, of the present year, Mr. Thomas 

 Sav received from Mr. Oram, of Great Egg-harbour, a 

 fine specimen of Tantalus, which had been shot there. 

 It is the first instance which has come to my knowledge 

 of this species having been found in the United States. 

 I was since informed that a recent specimen of this bird 

 was, likewise in the month of May, presented to the Bal- 

 timore Museum; and that two individuals were killed in 

 the District of Cokimbia. 



So large and so beautiful a bird as the present is, has, 

 certainly^ not escaped the eye of the naturalists of Europe, 

 especially those who have travelled in the southern parts 

 of our continent, where, doubtless, this species is indi- 

 genous; and yet in turning over the pages of the most 

 celebrated works on ornithology, I can find no descrip- 

 tion which corresponds to the subject before us, so as to 

 leave no doubt on the mind of the examiner as to the 

 species referred to. 



The descriptions of the Gioss}- Ibis, the Green Ibis, 

 and the Bay Ibis, by the late George Montagu of England, 

 in his excellent Ornithological Dictionary, all of which 

 birds he considers as constituting only one species, form 



