ORDER GRALL^. 515 



the supposed service rendered to Egypt by these birds in de- 

 livering it from serpents, we shall find that the chief stress is 

 laid upon their antipathy for these reptiles, which they were 

 said to combat and destroy ; but their organization seems but 

 little calculated to enable them to succeed in enterprises of 

 this kind. Besides, the animals, which are wont to rid us of 

 pernicious species, do so, not from a hatred and antipathy 

 which they bear to such species, but rather from the pleasure 

 which they expeiience in devouring and feasting on them. 

 This, assuredly, is a distinction of some weight ; it may also 

 be remarked, that the food of animals is always the same, 

 except in cases of dearth, which dearth is never wantonly 

 created by the animals themselves. If serpents of any kind 

 were the natural aliment of the ibis, instead of preventing 

 them from penetrating into the country where these birds 

 were destined to pass a portion of the year, the latter would 

 rather follow them into the places of their retreat. We can 

 easily conceive why birds of prey will chase other rapacious 

 birds, less powerful than themselves, from such tracts as they 

 have chosen for their own peculiar domain of hunting. But 

 it is difficult to conceive how any animals would interdict the 

 access to the country which they inhabit, to beings which 

 were destined to serve them for the purpose of food. If we 

 add to these considerations, the recollection, that sandy 

 countries are the suitable habitat of serpents, while humid 

 situations are best adapted to the ibis, we shall find fresh 

 cause to reject the opinion of Herodotus, as fabulous. It 

 could not, indeed, have been received with any great degree 

 of confidence by his own countrymen, since the first naturalist 

 of Greece has passed over in silence the antipathy of the 

 ibis to the serpent, and their supposed combats. If Hero- 

 dotus, who tells us that he had himself seen, on the confines 

 of Arabia, and at the place where the mountains open on the 

 vast plain of Egypt, the fields covered with an incredible 



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