SACRED IBIS. 47 



is included in the British lists; and secondly, there is 

 every reason why we should know something of the 

 Sacred Ibis, inasmuch as it has become widely famous 

 in Europe as the title of one of the best of our modern 

 natural history periodicals, on the cover of which its 

 now well-known portrait greets us — ever welcome — 

 every quarter. 



The Sacred Ibis has only been known in Europe, 

 according to the records of Temminck and Nordmann, 

 as above quoted; but it is a well-known bird in Africa, 

 and has become classic on Egyptian soil, having been 

 worshipped by its ancient people, by whom it was em- 

 balmed in great numbers in the catacombs of Memphis 

 and Thebes. 



The Rev. E. C. Tavlor, in his "Reminiscences of 

 Egypt," (Ibis, vol. i., p. 51,) tells us that the Buif- 

 backed Heron, ( Ardea hubiilcvs,] "does duty on the 

 Nile as the Ibis, being generally pointed out to travellers 

 by dragomans, etc., as the real Ibis religiosa. For the 

 Ibis I should say is now a rare bird in Egypt; at any 

 rate none of our party saw it, and I have been assured 

 that the only part of the country where it is now 

 regularly seen is the neighbourhood of Lake Menzaleh, 

 near the Damietta mouth of the Nile." 



This opinion is entirely borne out by Dr. Richard 

 Vierthaller, who, in "Naumannia," for 1852, p. 58, has 

 given a long and interesting account of this bird, from 

 which I shall quote largely u\ the course of this notice. 

 He says, "Ibis religiosa, or cBthiopica, Nedjeabiat, 

 White Ibis, or Abu Kedoun, called by the Arabs 

 'Father of the Bills,' is now only a dweller in tropical 

 Africa, and as far as my observation reaches chiefly in 

 the Sennaar country. In Egypt and Nubia I have 

 never seen it, and its range begins at the Nile between 



