572 ARDEID.E. 



membrane as far as the first joint ; hind toe long and resting its length on the 

 ground. Wings moderate, the first quill-feather shorter than the second and 

 third, which are the longest in the wing. 



THERE is good reason to believe that the Green, the 

 Glossy, and the Bay Ibis of authors, with the various syste- 

 matic names in use among ornithologists, refer only to 

 various states of the same bird, depending on age or season, 

 the difference in appearance inducing the names. Colonel 

 Montagu, who paid great attention to the changes in the 

 colours of plumage dependent on age, sex, and season, ap- 

 pears to have first pointed out the identity of these supposed 

 species of Ibis, and gives the details at considerable length 

 in the Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary. 



The appearance of the Glossy Ibis in this country, though 

 not uncommon, is still accidental ; the course of its migra- 

 tion for the summer towards the north of Europe being con- 

 siderably to the eastward in a line from Egypt to Turkey, 

 Hungary and Poland, to the southern parts of Russia. It 

 is also occasionally seen on its passage from northern Africa 

 in Crete, in the Grecian Archipelago, at Corfu, in Sicily, 

 Sardinia and at Genoa. A straggler is sometimes found in 

 Switzerland, Provence, France and Holland, but it is con- 

 sidered a rare bird. 



Three specimens have been killed in Ireland, as recorded 

 by N. A. Vigors, Esq., in the first volume of the Zoological 

 Journal. One occurred some years ago in Lancashire, and 

 is preserved in the collection of the Earl of Derby in that 

 county. According to Montagu " the Ibis is adopted as a 

 part of the arms of the town of Liverpool. This bird is 

 termed a Liver, from which that flourishing town derived 

 its name, and is now standing on the spot where the Pool 

 was, on the verge of which the Liver was killed." The 

 arms of the town of Liverpool are, however, comparatively 



