ON THE IBIS. 167 



The paintings of the Herculaneum leave no species in doubt. The 

 paintings, No. 138 and 140, of David's edition, and vol. ii, p. 315, No. 

 59, and p, 321, No. 60, of the original edition, which represent Egyp- 

 tian ceremonies, have many ibises walking in the courts of the temples. 

 They are exactly similar to the bird that we have pointed out. We 

 recognize particularly the characteristic blackness of the head and 

 neck, and we easily see by the proportion of their figure with the per- 

 sons of the picture, that it must have been a bird of half a metre at the 

 most, and not a metre or nearly so, as the tantalus ibis. 



The mosaic of Palasstrina also presents in its middle part many ibises 

 perched on the buildings ; and they differ in no respect from those of 

 the paintings of Herculaneum. 



A sardonyx in the collection of Dr. Mead, copied by Shaw, App. pi. 

 5, and representing an ibis, seems to be the minature of the bird we 

 have described. 



A medal of Adrian, in large bronze, represented in the Farnesian 

 Museum, vol, vi, pi. 28, fig. 6, and another of the same emperor, in 

 silver, represented in vol. iii, pi. 6, fig. 9, gives us figures of the ibis, 

 which, in spite of their smallness, are very similar to our birds. 



As to the figures of the ibis engraved on the plinth of the statue of 

 the Nile, at Belvedere, and on the copy of it in the garden of the 

 Tuileries, they are not sufficiently finished to serve as proofs; but 

 amongst the hieroglyphics of which the Institute of Egypt has 

 caused impressions to be taken on the spot, there are many which 

 decidedly represent our bird. We give one of these impressions com- 

 municated by M. Geoffroy {Plate 6). 



We particularly insist on this latter figure, because it is the most 

 fully authenticated of all ; having been made at the time and on the 

 spot where the ibis was worshipped, and being cotemporaneous with its 

 mummies ; whilst those we have above cited, done in Italy, and by 

 artists who did not profess the Egyptian worship, may not be so 

 accurate. 



We owe Bruce the justice of saying, that he detected the bird which 

 he has described under the name of abouhannes, as the real ibis. He 

 expressly says, that this bird appeared to him to resemble that which 

 the mummy pitchers contained ; he also says, that this abouhannes, 

 or Father John, is well known and common on the banks of the Nile, 

 whilst he never saw there the bird represented by Buffbn, under the 

 name of the white ibis of Egypt. 



M. Savigny, one of the naturalists of the expedition to Egypt, also 

 assures us that he never discovered the tantalus in this country, but he 

 found many of our numenius near the lake Menzale, in Lower Egypt, 

 and he brought their relics away with him. 



