392 THE SACRED IBIS. 
were forced to keep watch with sticks over the table. In spite of their 
vigilance it was often too quick for them; and once it snatched a boiled 
fowl off the dish and swallowed it on the spot. 
The exquisitely fine and flowing plumes, termed “ Marabou feathers,” are 
obtained from the Adjutant and a kindred species, the Marabou of Africa 
(Leptoptilos Marabou). 
‘The general colour of the Adjutant is delicate ashen grey above, and white 
beneath. The great head and proportionately large neck are almost bare of 
covering, having only a scanty supply of down instead of feathers. From 
the lower part of the neck hangs a kind of dewlap, which can be inflated at 
the will of the bird, but generally hangs loose and flabby. 
THE SACRED IBIS is one of a rather curious group of birds. With one 
exception they are not possessed of brilliant colouring, the feathers being 
mostly white and deep purplish black. ‘Ihe Scarlet Ibis, however, is a most 
magnificent, though not very large bird, its plumage being of a glowing 
scarlet, relieved by a few patches of black. 
SACRED IBIS.—(/d7s religiosa.) CURLEW.—(Mumenius arquata.) 
The Sacred Ibis is so called because it figures largely in an evidently 
sacred character on the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. It is a migratory 
bird, arriving in Egypt as soon as the waters of the Nile begin to rise, and 
remaining in that land until the waters have subsided, and cherefore deprived 
it of its daily supplies of food. The bird probably owes its sacred character 
to the fact that its appearance denotes the rising of the Nile, an annual 
phenomenon on which depends the prosperity of the whole country. 
By the natives of Egypt it is called the Abou H innes, z.¢, Father John, or 
Abou Menzel, ze, Father Sickle-bill, the former nawe being in use in 
Upper and the other in Lower Egypt. 
The colour af the adult bird is mostly pure silvery white, the feathers being 
glossv and closely set, with the exception of some of the secondaries, which 
are elongated and hang gracefully over the wings and tail. These, together 
with the tips of the primaries, are deep glossy black, and the head and neck 
are also back, but being devoid of feathers have a slight brownish tinge, 
Jike unat of an iil-blacked boot, or an old crumpled black kid glove. While 
