WADING BIRDS. 
1 16 
trees ; but of their manners during the period of reproduction 
we are still wholly ignorant, and Temminck believes that they 
retire to breed in the wilds of Asia, though Montague thinks 
their vernal migrations are directed to the less-inhabited parts 
of the North, where they find security about the rivers and 
interior lakes to propagate, and whence they retire as the 
winter approaches and as their food begins to fail, spreading 
themselves at this season over the southern parts of Europe 
and the adjoining continents. According to Oedman, they 
have been known to breed, for several years in succession, in 
the isle of Oland, in the Baltic. 
The food of the Ibis is merely insects, worms, river shell- 
fish, and vegetables, which is likewise the real fare of the nearly 
allied, Sacred Ibis, of the Egyptians {Ibh religiosa, Cuvier), 
neither of whom show any predilection for devouring serpents 
or large reptiles, — for which purpose, in fact, the structure of 
their long and falciform bills is wholly unfitted. 
From the supposed utility ot the Ibis in destroying noxious 
reptiles, it was held in the greatest veneration by the Egyp- 
tians; to kill it was forbidden under pain of death; large 
flocks were kept in temples, and when they died, were 
embalmed, inurned, and deposited with the mummies in the 
sacred receptacles of the dead. These bird-pits, as they are 
still called, are scattered over the plains of Saccara, and are 
filled with the numerous remains of this and the Egyptian 
species. So highly was it honored that the Ibis became the 
characteristic hieroglyph of the country, repeated upon all 
the monuments, obelisks, and national statues. The abun- 
dance of their remains in the catacombs proves, indeed, the 
familiarity which the species had contracted with the indulgent 
inhabitants of its favorite country ; and, like the Stork of 
Europe, venerated for its supposed piety, it gained credit, in 
the prejudices of the ignorant, for benefits which it never con- 
ferred. Diodorus Siculus, however, only adds, what appears 
by no means improbable, that, impelled by hunger on their 
first arrival, night and day the Ibis, walking by the verge 
of the water, watches reptiles, searching Jor their eggs, and 
