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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: I27-INV |
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IBIS , one of the sacred birds of the ancient Egyptians. James Bruce identified this bird with the Abu-Hannes or " Father John " of the Abyssinians, and in 1790 it received from Latham (Index ornithologicus, p. 706) the name of Tantalus aethiopicus. This determination was placed beyond question by Cuvier (Ann. du Museum, iv. 116-135) and Savigny (Hist. nat. et mythol. de l'ibis) in 18o5. They, however, removed it from the Linnaean genus Tantalus and, Lacepede having some years before founded a genus Ibis, it was transferred thither, and is now generally known as I. aethiopica, though some speak of it as I. religiosa. No attempt can here be made to treat the ibis from a mythological or antiquarian point of view. Savigny's memoir contains a great deal of matter on the subject. Wilkinson (.Ancient Egyptians, ser. 2, vol. H. pp. 217-224) added some of the results of later research, and Renouf in his Hibbert Lectures explains the origin of the myth. The ibis is chiefly an inhabitant of the Nile basin from Dongola southward, as well as of Kordofan and Sennar; whence aboutmidsummer it moves northwards to Egypt.3 In Lower Egypt it bears the name of Abu-mengel, or " father of the sickle," from the form of its bill, but it does not stay long in that country, disappearing when the Nile has subsided. Hence most travellers have failed to meet with it there2 (since their acquaintance with the birds of Egypt is limited to those which frequent the country in winter), and writers have denied generally to this species a place in its modern fauna (cf. Shelley, Birds of Egypt, p. 261). However, in 1864, von Heuglin (Journ. fiir Ornithologie, 1865, p. too) saw a young
snakes
The ibis is somewhat larger than a curlew
Numenius
young
Congeneric with the typical ibis are two or three other species, the I. melanocephala of India, the I. molucca or I. strictipennis, of Australia, and the I. bernieri of Madagascar; all of which closely resemble I. aethiopica; while many other forms not very far removed from it, though placed by authors in distinct genera,' are known. Among these are several beautiful species such as the Japanese Geronticus nippon, the Lophotibis cristata of Madagascar, and the scarlet ibis,' Eudocimus ruber, of America. The glossy ibis, Plegadis falcinellus, found throughout the West Indies, Central and the south-eastern part of North America, as well as in many parts of Europe (whence it not unfrequently strays to the British Islands), Africa, Asia and Australia. This bird, believed to be the second kind of ibis spoken of by Herodotus, is rather smaller than the sacred ibis, and mostly of a dark chestnut colour with brilliant green and purple reflections on the upper parts, exhibiting, however, when young none of the rufous hue. This species lays eggs of a deep sea-green colour, having wholly the character of heron 's eggs, and it often breeds in company with herons, while the eggs of all other ibises whose eggs are known resemble those of the sacred ibis. Though ibises resemble the curlews externally, there is no affinity between them. The Ibididae are more nearly related to the storks, Ciconiidae, and still more to the spoonbills, Plataleidae, with which latter many systematists consider them to form one group, the Hemiglottides of Nitzsch. Together these groups form the sub-order Ciconiae of the order Ciconiiformes. The true ibises are also to be clearly separated from the wood
1 It has been said to occur occasionally in Europe (Greece and southern Russia). - 2 E. C. Taylor remarked (Ibis, 1859, p. 51), that the buff-backed heron , Ardea bubulcus, was made by the tourists' dragomans to do duty for the "sacred ibis," and this seems to be no novel practice, since by it, or something like it, Hasselqvist was misled, and through him Linnaeus.3 The ibis has more than once nested in the gardens of the Zoological Society in London, and even reared its young there. * For some account of these may be consulted Dr Reichenow's paper in Journ. fur Ornithologie (1877), pp. 143-156; Elliot's in Proc. Zool. Society (1877), pp. 477-510; and that of Oustalet in Nouv. Arch. du Museum, ser. 2, vols. 1. pp. 167-184.It is a popular error especially among paintersthat this bird was the sacred ibis of the Egyptians. ibis, I. pagan
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