32 
GLOSSY IBIS. 
lias been since proclaimed by Cuvier and Savigny the true Ibis, 
in place of the Tantalus Ibis of Linne, which he so called for want 
of knowing the real Ibis, believing this to be it, though but very 
seldom even found in Egypt. This opinion, which though more 
plausible than that which it superseded, was still erroneous, 
originated with Perrault, and was adopted and maintained by 
Buffon, Brisson, Linne, Blumenbach, and all others until lately, 
when Colonel Grobert returning from Egypt presented Fourcroy 
with mummies which enabled Cuvier first to perceive that the 
Ibis was not a Tantalus, but a true Ibis , which genus he did not 
then distinguish from Numenius. Savigny in the year 1806 by an 
admirable work on the Ibis, put the question at rest. 
The sacred White Ibis, though not in reality peculiar to Egypt, 
where it is seen only at certain seasons of the year, does not 
however migrate to far distant countries : it is spread throughout 
Africa, and species extremely similar to it are found in India and 
Ceylon. But it is not our province to treat of it, and it has 
already formed the subject of several volumes. 
We have already remarked that Buffon justly indicated the 
natural relations of the Ibis by stating that it was intermediate 
between the Stork and the Curlew. What he said of the species 
we shall extend to the three families to which the three birds 
belong in our system. In the transition from one group to 
another Nature seems often to make the passage by insensible 
intermediate steps, and it sometimes happens that the species 
placed on the limits of two groups belong decidedly to one or 
the other, and even when it may be impossible to say to which 
they ought to be referred, we still cannot admit them as types of 
an intermediate group. At other times the intermediate species 
form a small group by themselves, and although a portion of such 
a connecting group shows great affinity to that which follows it, 
while another portion is equally connected with a preceding group, 
