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GLOSSY IBIS. 



Ibis Falcinellus, Vieill. 



PLATE CCCLXXXVII. Mate, 



The first intimation of the existence of this beautiful species of 

 Ibis within the limits of the United States is due to Mr George Okd 

 of Philadelphia, the friend and companion of the celebrated Alexander 

 Wilson. It was described by him in the first volume of the Journal of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He states that " on 

 the seventh of May of the present year (1817), Mr Thomas Say received 

 from Mr Oram, of Great Egg Harbour, a fine specimen of Tantalus, 

 which had been shot there. It is the first instance which has come to 

 my knowledge of this species having been found in the United States. 

 I was informed that a recent specimen of this bird was, likewise in the 

 month of May, presented to the Baltimore Museimi, and that two in- 

 dividuals were killed in the district of Columbia." In the sequel Mr 

 Ord compares it with Dr Latham's account of the Tantalus Mexicanus 

 of that author, and conjectures that it is the same. 



It is not a little curious to see the changes of opinion that have 

 taken place within these few years among naturalists who have thought 

 of comparing American and European specimens of the birds which 

 have been alleged to be the same in both continents. The Prince of 

 MusiGNANO, for example, who has given a figure of the very individual 

 mentioned by Mr Ord, thought at the time when he published the 

 foiu-th volume of his continuation of Wilson's American Ornithology, 

 that our Glossy Ibis vv^as the one described by the older European writers 

 under the name of Ibis Falcinellus. Now, however, having altered his 

 notions so far as to seem desirous of proving that the same species 

 of bird cannot exist on both the continents, he has latterly produced it 

 anew under the name of Ibis Ordi. This new name I cannot with any 

 degree of propriety adopt. I consider it no compliment to the disco- 

 verer of a bird to reject the name which he has given it, even for the 

 purpose of calling it after himself. 



The Glossy Ibis is of exceedingly rare occurrence in the United 

 States, where it appears only at long and irregular intervals, like a 



