z88 OltACirHOLOgr* "Book III 



Chap. III. 

 * The Ibis of {BeBonius. 



F 



^Ormerly ( faith he ) we took the blachjhis to be xheHttndtepus : But obfervino- 

 its manners and conditions, we found it not to be the H<ematopus, but the black 

 Ibis, which Herodotus firft mentioned, and after him Arifiotle. It is of the 

 *morw. bulk of the* Curlew, or a little lefs, all over black: Hath the Head of a Cormorant. 

 The Bill where it is joyned to the Head is above an inch thick, but pointed toward 

 the end, and a little crooked and arched, and Wholly red, as are alfo the Legs, which 

 are long, like the Legs of that Bird Which Pliny calls Bos taurus, Arifiotle names 

 Ardea ftellaris. It hath a long Neck like a Heron, fo that when we firft faw the 

 black Ibis, it feemed to us in the manner and make [ habitu ~] of its body like the 

 Bittour. 



This kind of Bird is faidto be (b proper to Egypt, that it cannot live out of that 

 Country, and that if it be carried out it dies fuddenly. 



The Ibes are birds very ufeful to the Egyptians, for deftroying Serpents, Locufts 

 and Caterpillars, with which that Country is greatly infefted 5 and therefore divine 

 honours were given them. The Ibes (faith Cicero ) difpatch a power of Serpents. 

 They turn away a great Plague from Egypt, when they kill and confume thofe flying 

 Serpents that are brought in thither by the Weft wind out of the Deferts of Libya. 

 Whence it comes to pafs,that they do no harm either dive by their biting, -or dead by 

 their ftench. For which caule the Ibes are invocated by the Egyptians. What dfc the 

 Ancients have delivered concerning the Ibis, fee in Aldrovandus. 



Chap. IV. $. I. 



The Spoon-hill. Platea five Pelecanus of Gefner. Lcucorodius live 

 Albardeola ofAldroyand. Lepelaer of the Low Dutch. 



THat which we defcribed was a young one taken out of the Neft. It weighed 

 forty five ounces and an half. Its length from the tip of the Bill to the end 

 of the Claws v as thirty four inches, to the end of the Tail twenty four. 

 The colour of the whole body was Snow-white like a Swans. Beyond the Eyes to- 

 ward the Bill grow neither feathers nor down, as in the Heron and Cormorant. The 

 angle alfo of the lower Chap is bare, which perchance is peculiar and proper to this 

 Bird. 



The firft quil-feather of the Wing is black 5 of the fecond only the exteriour Web, 

 or outer half from the (haft 5 and the tip of the interiour are black , of the third only 

 the top, and of the fourth yet lefs. In like manner the tips and fhafts of the inferiour 

 feathers of the fecond row were black. The Tail is very fhort, viz. three inches and 

 an half, made up of twelve feathers. 



The Bill is of a lingular and unufual figure, plain, deprelTed, and broad, near the 

 end dilated into an almoft circular figure, of the likenefs of a Spoon, whence alfo the 

 Bird it felfis called by the Low Dutch, Lepelaer, that is, Spoon-bill. The broad part of 

 the Bill is graven with twelve or fourteen lines or crevifes 5 but its inward furface is 

 fmooth and even, without any fuch fculptures or gravings. The Bill in the young 

 ones before they be grown up is white, or of a flefh-colour, in old ones black. The 

 Tongue is (harp and little. The Legs half way up the fecond joynt are bare of fea- 

 thers } in the young ones of a whitifh colour. The Feet ftrong: The fore-toes 

 joyned together by a membrane 5 the outmoft and middlemoft to the fecond joynt, 

 the middlemoft and inmoft no further than the firft. The Toes and Claws black. 



We did notobferve in our Bird thofe reflections of the Wind-pipe, which Aldro- 

 vandm mentions,defcribes, and figures. It had a large Call .• The Guts had many re- 

 volutions. Above the Stomach the Gullet was dilated into a Bag, whofe inward fur- 

 face was rough and uneven, with many papillary glandules. 



Its Eggs are of the bignefs of Hens Eggs, white, and powdered with a few fan- 

 guine or pale-red fpots. 



In 



