The Zoologist — February, 1873. 3391 



Then we come to the sacred Egyptian ibis, sacred no longer, 

 Egyptian no longer: we seem to feel an intense desire to learn 

 more of his history than the author has given us, infinitesiraally 

 small, and either purely negative or entirely speculative. The 

 reason why the ibis was so esteemed in olden Egypt — a fact which 

 its mummified remains seem to attest — was, according to Herodotus, 

 its intense antipathy to snakes and other reptiles ; and, in the 

 estimation of that venerated historian, the ibis seems to have held 

 office in the preventive service of Egypt, its duty being to keep all 

 snakes out of the kingdom ; a similar office was held in Ireland by 

 St. Patrick, who until this day exercises his restraining influence 

 to such an extent, that every attempt made to acclimatise snake or 

 adder in the sister island has proved an utter failure; and the pro- 

 hibition extends even to the innocent toad : this I cannot help 

 attributing to the saint's imperfect knowledge of Natural History. 

 It is a bold suggestion, I confess, but while I am calling in ques- 

 tion these Celeberrimi, T may say that, supposing the ibis to have 

 fed on snakes in the time of Herodotus, and thus merited divine 

 honour, I should be inclined to attribute the propensity rather to a 

 taste for that particular diet than to an antipathy to the animals 

 themselves ; thus in different ages we see things in a different light, 

 and it is with extreme diffidence that I venture an opinion opposed 

 to that of the Father of History. Dr. Baird, in his ' Cyclopaedia 

 of the Natural Sciences," informs us that the ibis "is a migratory 

 species: it makes its appearance in Egypt as soon as the waters of 

 the Nile begin to rise, and disappears when the inundation ter- 

 minates." The Rev. J. G. Wood repeats this information, adding 

 " and therefore deprived it of its daily supplies of food : the bird 

 probably owes its sacred character to the fact that its appearance 

 denotes the rising of the Nile, an annual phenomenon on which 

 depends the prosperity of the whole country." (Wood's Nat. Hist, 

 ii. 689.) This phenomenon, as will be seen below, escaped the 

 notice of Mr. Shelley, as it has of all the ornithologists who visit 

 Egypt; and hence the inference as to its connection with the once- 

 sacred character of the ibis, has not been adopted by these practical 

 observers. 



"I can find no authenticated instance of this bird having been seen 

 in Egypt in modern times, although there can be no doubt that it 

 once lived in that country ; for the food found in many of the mum- 

 mied specimens consists of shells, insects and reptiles, now common in 



