qjo Mr. Pearson's Account of two Mummies 
have described present specimens of the black and white Ibis, 
I cannot presume to determine. The anterior layer of feathers 
of the Ibis last examined is of a dark colour ; but the plumage 
beneath is white. Many of the dark feathers are not at all 
marked with white. 
The most ancient, and probably the most authentic account 
which we possess of the Egyptian art of embalming, is deli- 
vered by Herodotus ;* and what is offered upon this subject 
by subsequent writers, seems to have been copied from this 
early historian. Their narratives relate principally to the con- 
servation of human bodies ; and, in the preparing of these, it 
appears that the contents of the abdomen, at least, were re- 
moved by incision, or were corroded by injecting a liquor 
extracted from the cedar-tree. -f* But it is almost certain, that 
birds were not previously opened, nor was any art employed 
to remove the stomach and intestines ; for, on examining the 
interior parts of the dark coloured Ibis, I met with a soft 
spongy substance, lying quite loose, containing a great number 
of scarabaei in an imperfect state ; these had probably been 
taken as the food of the bird, and were not digested at the 
time of its death, but remained in the alimentary canal to the 
present period. Cuvier also remarks, that he found within the 
mummy of an Ibis part of the skin and scales of a serpent. 
As larvae of dermestides and other insects have been detected 
among the dust and bones of a mummy, it may be presumed 
that the Ibis was not always embalmed in a fresh state ; which 
may indeed account, in part, for the very imperfect condition 
in which many of these birds are found. 
The Ibis was held in great veneration by the Egyptians for 
* Euterpe* f Pancirollus Rerum memorah. pars i. tit. xlii. 
