158 ON THE IB1S - 



true species of this bird ; and his ideas in this respect, exact as they 



were, have not been adopted by other naturalists*. 



After many changes of opinion concerning the ibis, it was apparently 

 agreed, at the period when I published the first edition of this work, to 

 five the name of ibis to a bird, a native of Africa, nearly the size of 

 the stork, with white plumage, and the plumes of the wings black, 

 perched on long red legs, with a long beak, arched with cutting edges, 

 rounded at the base, jagged at the point, of a pale yellow colour, and 

 with its face covered with a red skin, without plumage, which does not 

 go farther than its eyes. 



Such is the ibis of Perraultf, the white ibis of BrissonJ, the white 

 ibis of Egypt of Buffon§, and the tantalus ibis of LiniiBeus, in his 

 twelfth edition. 



It was to this very bird that M. Blumenbach, at the same time con- 

 fessing its rarity at the present day, at least in Lower Egypt, asserted 

 that the Egyptians paid divine honours || ; and yet M. Blumenbach 

 had an opportunity of examining the skeleton of a real mummy ibis, 

 which he opened in London^}. I was in the same error as these 

 learned men whom I have just mentioned, until I had an opportunity 

 of examining by myself some mummies of the ibis. 



This pleasure was first procured for me by the late M. Fourcroy, to 

 whom M. Groberl", colonel of artillery, returning from Egypt, had 

 given two of these mummies, both taken from the pits of Saccara. On 

 unfolding them carefully, we perceived that the bones of the embalmed 

 bird were much smaller than those of the tantalus ibis of naturalists; 

 that they were but very little larger than those of the curlew ; that the 

 beak resembled that of the latter, only being somewhat shorter in pro- 

 portion to its thickness, and not at all similar to that of the tantalus ; 

 in fact, that its plumage was white, with the plumes of the w : ing 

 marked with black, as stated by the ancients. 



"We were then convinced that the bird embalmed by the ancient 



* Bruce's French translation, in 8vo. v. xiii, p. 264, and Atlas plate xxxv, under 

 the name Abouhannes. 



f Description of an ibis, and two storks. Acad, des Sciences of Paris v. iii 

 pi. iii, p. 61, 4to. ed. 1754, pi. xiii, fig. 1. The beak is represented as truncated at 

 the end, a fault of the engraver. 



% Numenius sordide albo rufescens, capite anteriore nudo rubro ; lateribus rubro 

 purpureo et carneo colore maculatis, remigibus majoribus nigris, rectricibus sordide 

 albo rufescentibus, rostro in exortu dilute luteo, in extremitate aurantio, pedibus 

 griseis. Ibis Candida Brisson Ornithologie, vol. 5, p. 349. 



§ ' Planches Enlumin^es,' num. 389. Hist, des Oiseaux, v. viii. in 4to. p. 14 

 pi. 1. The last figure is copied from Perrault, with the same fault. 



|| Handbuch der Naturgeschichte, p. 203, of the edit. 1799, but in the edition of 

 1807, he has restored the name of ibis to the bird to which it belongs. 



\ Philosophical Tranactions, for 1794. 



