THE IBIS 
42Y 
account for the visit of the Parakeets to the worthy Knickerbock- 
ers about Albany. 
But among all the birds which appear from time to time Avithin 
our borders, there is not one Avhich, 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 Avorshipped by the Egyptians 
— the white, the most sacred, and the black. For a long time, 
the learned Avere 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 Avorld. There are two 
old paintings discovered among the ruins of Herculaneum, repre- 
senting Egyptian sacrifices of importance, and in each sCA^eral 
Ibises are introduced close to the altar and the priest. The reA'- 
erence in which the Ibis was held in Egypt seems, indeed, to haA'e 
been carried as far as possible ; it was declared pre-eminently 
sacred ; its Avorship, 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 Avould 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. EA'en their dead bodies, as we 
all know, were embalmed by the thousand. The motive for this 
adoration was said to be the ^reat 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 AArith the favorable Avinds which preceded the rains 
