218 NOTES AND QUERIES. 



specimen illustrates a time when the Ibis was held in the great- 

 est veneration, when a pyramid, Sakkara, was dedicated to it, and 

 when these birds were embalmed in the same spices as the 

 Egyptian kings ; a period over two thousand years ago. The 

 incident is of interest, since it shews amidst the sacred regard 

 which enshrouded it, that the food of these birds was the same 

 as it still sometimes procures in the upper reaches of the Nile. 

 It is now very rarely seen in Egypt. 



H. CEOWTHEE. 



