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Family IBIDM. 



Genus IBIS. 



Ibis, Audouin, Expl. somm. d. PI. des Ois. de l'Egypte, &c, p. 299 (1825). 



Geronticus apud Wagler, Isis, 1832, p. 1232. 



Ibis, Riippell, Syst. Uebers. taf. 45 (1845). 



Comatibis apud Reichenbach, Av. Syst. Nat. p. 26 (1850). 



Many authors have subdivided the Ibises into numerous genera ; and the two latest authorities 

 who have written on the subject both separate the single species we have in the Western 

 Palsearctic Region from the genus Ibis — Mr. D. G. Elliot placing it in the genus Comatibis 

 (P. Z. S. 1877, p. 493), whereas Dr. Anton Reichenow (J. f. 0. 1877, p. 149) places it with Ibis 

 calva and Ibis papillosa in the subgenus Geronticus; but it appears to me unadvisable to remove 

 it from the genus Ibis, where I have accordingly placed it. The Ibises inhabit the Pakearctic, 

 Oriental, Australian, and Ethiopian Regions, only one species being met with in the Western 

 Palsearctic Region. They frequent damp and marshy as well as dry and even arid localities, 

 walk with ease, and in wet places wade into shallow water. They feed on worms, reptiles, and 

 insects ; and some species are said to devour offal. They breed in the clefts of rocks or on trees, 

 and deposit bluish-white eggs either unmarked or spotted with rufous. 



The type of the genus is Ibis cethiopica (Lath.), the Sacred Ibis of the ancient Egyptians, a 

 species which cannot fairly be included in the avifauna of the Western Palsearctic Region, 

 though a specimen has been obtained near Damietta by Mons. Filliponi (Gurney, Rambles of a 

 Naturalist, p. 298). As this species has, therefore, not been included, I give the generic characters 

 of the Red-cheeked Ibis (Ibis comata), which has the bill elongated, gradually curved towards 

 the tip, rather broad at the base, the upper mandible grooved along the sides; nostrils basal, 

 elongated ; head to behind the ear and the nape and the upper part of the neck bare ; feathers 

 on the upper neck elongated and narrow ; wings long and full, the second quill longest ; tail 

 rather long, rounded ; legs long, stout, the tibia bare on the lower half; tarsus covered with 

 roundish scales; toes stout, strong; claws stout, curved, rather blunt. 



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