$835.] Examination of a Mummy Head. 323 



its display somewhat difficult, and any attempt to bring it into view- 

 would, I fear, endanger the spoiling of the preparation. I therefore 

 thought it best to leave it unexplored. What description of birds they 

 are, it is difficult to say ; the form of the heads and mandibles would 

 lead me to pronounce them Plovers, but for the toe at the back of 

 the foot, which is altogether wanting in the genus Ckaradrius ; it is 

 therefore not improbable they belong either to the Rail or Tringa fami- 

 ly. Whatever they are, it is evident they must have been enclosed when 

 very young, and barely fledged ; for I can detect no quill feathers or 

 traces of any having been attached to the wings, although the smaller 

 feathers are closely matted together, and distinct enough. What further 

 tends to confirm this opinion is, the great disproportion of the bones of 

 the wings to those of the legs and other parts of the body — a discre- 

 pancy common to all young birds before they attain the power of flight. 

 I am consequently disposed to consider them as nestlings, and think 

 it not unlikely that a variety of birds, besides the Ibis Religiosa, might 

 have been deified by the ancient Egyptians. 



In detaching the birds from the enveloping bituminous matter, I met 

 with a seed of the common castor oil plant, apparently in a good state 

 of preservation. As it is a curious circumstance, I have enclosed it in 

 a small phial along with the fragments of Beetles you sent for my in- 

 spection : these latter appear to be portions of a small kind of common 

 locusts ; elytra of some kind of Buprestis, and pieces of a species of 

 carabus ; but in their mutilated condition it is impossible to identify 

 any of them with existing specimens. 



The head is that of a female, rather below the ordinary stature of 

 women, and I should say about 20 or 22 years of age, judging from the 

 best criterion, the teeth, and the little attrition they seem generally to 

 have undergone. The dentes sapientise in both jaws are only partially 

 advanced, which with the profusion and colour of the hair, and the tiara 

 kind of form it is drest in, I think are sufficiently indicative of 

 youthfulness. The lineaments of the face must have been small, 

 compressed laterally, and much sunken below the eyes, for the sinu- 

 osities beneath the orbits are remarkably deep, and the malar bones 

 very angular and projecting. The forehead is low, and though 

 straight for its extent is by no means ample, giving a facial angle of 

 about 78°, indicating no extraordinary development of the intellectual 

 and reflecting faculties, and an approach to what Camper would call 

 the minimum of comeliness ; but the angle is evidently diminished by 

 the great protrusion of the upper maxilla, from the nasal spine, of 

 which the measurement is made in taking the facial line. 

 8 s2 



