486 MR. D. G. ELLIOT ON THE IBIDIN^. [Juue 5, 



ThresMornis strictipennis, Gould, B. Austr. vol. vi. pi. 46 ; id. 

 Hand-b. B. Austr. (1865) vol. ii. p. 284. 



Threskiornis eethiopicus. Gray, App. List Gen. Birds ('1842) 

 p. 13 ; Gurney, Ibis (I860) p. 219, (1865) p. 275. 



Geronticus strictipennis. Gray, Gen. B. (1849) vol. iii. p. 567. 

 sp. 7; id. Hand-1. B. (1871) pt. iii. p. 40. 



Geronticus eethiopicus, Gray, Gen. B. (1849) vol. iii. p. 5G6. 

 sp. 5; Layard, B. S. Afr. (1867) p. 320. sp. 604 ; Gray, Handl. 

 B. (1871) pt. iii. p. 40; Bartlett, Ibis (1876) p. 211. 



Ibis cethiopica, von Heugl. Syst. Ueber. Vog. Nordost.-Afr. 

 (1855) p. 213. sp. 633; Gurney, Ibis (1868) p. 259; Finsch & 

 Hartl. Vog. Ost.-Afr. (1870) p. 783; Gurney, Anderss. B. Damaral. 

 (1872) p. 297; Shellev, B. Egypt (1872) p. 261; Heugl. Ornith. 

 Nordost.-Afr. (1873) Band ii. Abth. 1, p. 1135 ; Ayres, Ibis (1874) 

 p. 105. 



Thresciornis religiosa, Hartl. Syst. Orn. W. Afr. (1857) p. 232. 

 sp. 658; Gurney, Ibis (1859) p. 153. sp. 9, (1865) p. 275. 



Hab. Africa, Senegambia {Hartl.); Casamanze {Verr.) ; Mos- 

 sambique {Peters) ; Cameroons (Crossley) ; Transvaal (Ayres); 

 St. George, Elmina, Gold-Coast {Pel) ; Australia, Ceram {Schlegel) ; 

 Salawatty {Rosenberg) . 



The Sacred Ibis is no longer met with upon the Nile south of 

 Kartouin ; and I do not know of any authentic account of its having 

 been seen in Egypt in modern times. In ancient days it must have 

 been very numerous, as great quantities of mummies of these birds 

 are found in the tombs and pits throughout Egypt. Strabo states 

 that every street in Alexandria was full of them in his time, and 

 they were useful in picking up all kinds of offal thrown out of the 

 butchers' shops. He also says they were troublesome because they 

 devoured every thing, were dirty, and were prevented with difficulty 

 from polluting what was clean and not given to them. Hermopolis 

 was the patron city of this bird ; and it appears to have been wor- 

 shipped throughout the land. It was the emblem of Thoth, the 

 scribe of Osiris, who wrote down the deeds of the deceased ; and its 

 portrait is seen upon many of the monuments that remain. Vier- 

 thaler says that on the White and Blue Nile it builds in trees, nesting 

 in great companies during the months of August, September, and 

 October. 



This species is the type of Savigny's genus Ibis ; and I have 

 consequently retained this term for it and its congeneric relatives. 



Mr. Gould has separated, in his ' Birds of Australia,' the Black- 

 necked Ibis of that country from I. cethiopica, on account of the 

 lengthened feathers on the lower part of the throat, and has called 

 it /. strictipennis ; and the species has generally been accepted 

 by ornithologists as valid. Another less conspicuous character is 

 the extent of the dark-green colour on the ends of the primaries. 

 Inasmuch as the lengthened neck-feathers of /. melanocephala are 

 present in some specimens and not in others (being assumed in the 

 breeding-season), and care therefore of no value as a specific character, 

 it does not seem at all natural that the same character among speci- 



