288 



outstretched. With other birds that were kept in the same yard they were excellent friends, 

 living in peace with them, and showed great affection to each other, always sleeping close 

 together. They bathed but seldom, settling down on their knees in the water and making 

 themselves very wet. The flesh of both the old and young birds is, he adds, very tender and 

 tasty, and well cooked they form quite a dainty dish. 



The ancient Egyptians held this bird in high veneration, owing, it is said by the older 

 authors, to its habit of destroying snakes ; but this is not the reason assigned by modern 

 Egyptologists. Vast numbers are found embalmed, at Sakkara especially ; but there is much 

 reason to believe that, though the species may in ancient times have been more plentiful than 

 now in Egypt, the majority of the mummies are those of birds brought from the Upper Nile 

 and kept tame in the temples. Dr. Leith Adams says (Ibis, 1864, p. 32) that " mummied Ibises 

 are usually found alone, but sometimes with other sacred animals ; and although Hermopolis was 

 the patron city of the bird, as Buto of the Kestrel and other Hawks, we find it also among the 



tombs of Thebes and Memphis It was the emblem of Thoth, the scribe or secretary of 



Osiris, whose duty it was to write down and recount the deeds of the deceased ; in consequence 

 the bird is constantly seen on the ancient monuments under various forms. In the gizzards of 

 the mummied specimens unrolled at Thebes I found large pebbles, beads, many shells of 

 Paludince, but chiefly remains of coleopterous insects, especially of a small black beetle which 

 is common on dung-heaps along the river's bank. All the paintings at Beni Hassan and the 

 Tombs of the Kings represent the /. religiosa." He also remarks that no doubt the Sacred Ibis 

 was imported into Italy, and kept about the temples of Isis. 



The nest is placed in a tree, and, according to Vierthaler, nidification commences early in 

 September near Khartoum ; they usually build in a mimosa, nesting in companies, twenty 

 or thirty nests being sometimes placed in one tree. The nest is very simple, about the size of 

 that of a Rook, constructed of coarse twigs, and lined with grass and a few feathers, the number 

 of eggs being usually three, occasionally, but seldom, four, and they breed but once in the year, 

 though they are not very particular as to time, as he saw late in September and also in November 

 young birds of about the same age. Dr. A. E. Brehm and Vierthaler describe the eggs as being 

 about the size of those of the domestic hen, and white ; but Von Heuglin says that they are 

 greenish, bluish, or yellowish white, marked with brown, chiefly at the larger end. He also 

 says that the nests are placed on Sunt or Hardz trees, and are as slightly built as those of the 

 Bing-Dove, and are always in tall trees which are placed on islands or other places which are 

 frequently flooded. Von Heuglin gives the measurements of the eggs as from 2" 4'" to 2" of" 

 by 1" 5J"' to 1" 6J-"'. 



The specimen figured is an adult male, for the loan of which, as well as those above described, 

 I am indebted to Canon Tristram. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined, besides the series in the British 

 Museum, the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. JB. Tristram, 

 a, ? . Khartoum, June 1852 {Von Heuglin). b, £ ad. Transvaal, May 1870 {T. Ayres). cjuu. Transvaal 

 (T.Ayres). 



