THE IBIS 
427 
account for the visit of the Parakeets to the wortliy Knickerbock- 
ers about x\lbany. 
But among all the birds which appear from time to time within 
our borders, there is not one which, in its day, has attracted so 
much attention and curiosity as the Ibis — the sacred Ibis of Egypt. 
There were two birds of this family worshipped by the Egyptians 
— the Avhite, the most sacred, and the black. For a long time, 
the learned were greatly puzzled to identify these birds ; but at 
length the question was fully settled by MM. Cuvier and Savig- 
ny ; and we now find that the Ibis of both kinds, instead of being 
peculiar to Egypt, extends far over the world. There are two 
old paintings discovered among the ruins of Herculaneum, repre- 
senting Egyptian sacrifices of importance, and in each several 
Ibises are introduced close to the altar and the priest. The rev- 
erence in which the Ibis was held in Egypt seems, indeed, to have 
been carried as far as possible : it was declared pre-eminently 
sacred ; its worship, unlike that of other divinities among them, 
was not local, but extended throughout Egypt ; the priests de- 
clared that if the Gods were to take a mortal form, it would be 
under that of the Ibis that they would appear ; the water in the 
temple was only considered fit for religious purposes after an Ibis 
had drunk of it. These birds were nurtured in the temples, and it 
was death for a man to kill one. Even their dead bodies, as we 
all know, were embalmed by the thousand. The motive for this 
adoration was said to be the great service rendered to Egypt by 
these birds, who were supposed to devour certain winged ser- 
pents, and prevent their devastating the country. M. Charles 
Bonaparte supposes that this fable arose from the fact that the 
Ibis appeared with the favorable winds wliich preceded the rains 
