Note 1774 — BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.

Cuvier has given an interesting account of the ibis, the opinions entertained of it by various travellers and naturalists, and a detail of the examination which he made of two of its mummies, which were brought by Grobert to Paris, from the wells of Sakhara. These mummies were found to be similar to those previously examined by Buffon, Shaw, and others, and proved the ibis of the ancient Egyptians to have been a species of curlew. This opinion he further supports by a reference to various sculptures and mosaics, where this bird is represented, and he remarks upon the errors into which most travellers and historians have fallen as to it; the only correct account he conceives to be that of the African traveller, Bruce, who describes and figures it under the name of Abou hannès. See the extract in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 633, et seq., from his Recherches sur les Ossements Fossiles, vol. i. p. 141, et seq. Herodotus gives an account of the ibis, B. i. c. 75, 76, but it is not correct.—B.