LECTURE VL 2S3 



may perhaps overwhelm our cultivated lands and 

 cause our destruction; and venomous serpents may 

 then possess our abodes as they now do their na- 

 tive deserts ; instead of speaking thus, they would 

 say in metaphor. The Flying-Sei^pents will destroy 

 Egypt. In the same manner, when, by the effect of 

 the north-winds the country was purified, and the 

 Ibis, the harbinger of fertility, re-appeared, they 

 "would say, The Ibises have conquered the Serpents. 

 Lastly, the sands, accumulated on the confines of 

 the desert, arrested by vegetation in those places 

 where the openings between the hills afforded 

 them a passage, might well be denominated the 

 heaps of bones, which declared the victory of the 

 Ibis, and justified the veneration paid to the bird. 

 The genus "Numenius or Curlew is so closely 

 allied to that of Ibis^ that it only differs in not 

 having a naked front. The common Curlew is a 

 native of our own island, and is often seen on our 

 coasts. Its colour is pale-brown, varied with 

 deeper brown, and the lower parts are white. 

 The genus is not very numerous, but some of the 

 exotic species are birds of considerable elegance ; 

 one in particular which sometimes strays into thi^ 

 country, and is of a brilliant coppery-brow'n colour. 



