

THE SCARLET IBIS. 



Ibis rvbra. Lacep. 



That a bird so liiglily celebrated in mythological history 

 as the Ibis of ancient Egypt, incessantly represented on 

 the early monuments of the country which it still inha- 

 bits, and transmitted to us in almost infinite numbers in 

 the shape of mummies from a remote antiquity, should 

 have been widely mistaken by every modern writer until 

 within the last fifty years, is indeed matter of astonish- 

 ment ; but such is really the fact. Belon, an excellent 

 ornithologist, who visited Egypt about the middle of 

 the sixteenth century, imagined that the Stork was the 

 true Ibis of the ancients : Pocock maintained that the 

 latter was a species of Crane : and De Maillet conjec- 

 tured that under the name of Ibis were generically 

 comprehended all those birds which are instrumental 

 in removing the noxious reptiles that swarm in the 



BIRDS. G 



