. Natural history. Zoology. Fig. 47.—Thu Sacrbd Ieis i^lhis aethiopica). procured in Egypt, one of them having been shot near Damietta about twelve years ago. We know ako that the species extends to the Persian Gulf, its winter home being in Eastern and Southern Africa. There are no less than twenty different genera of Ibises, and many of them are remarkable for highly developed crests and ornamental plumes, while in the Sacred Ibis and its allies the head and neck are bare. The Glossy Ibises {Plegadis) are among tho commonest and best known of the whole family, as one of them, P. falcinellus,
. Natural history. Zoology. Fig. 47.—Thu Sacrbd Ieis i^lhis aethiopica). procured in Egypt, one of them having been shot near Damietta about twelve years ago. We know ako that the species extends to the Persian Gulf, its winter home being in Eastern and Southern Africa. There are no less than twenty different genera of Ibises, and many of them are remarkable for highly developed crests and ornamental plumes, while in the Sacred Ibis and its allies the head and neck are bare. The Glossy Ibises {Plegadis) are among tho commonest and best known of the whole family, as one of them, P. falcinellus, has visited England on many occasions. This species breeds in numbers on the marshes of the lower Danube, as well as in similar places in Africa and India, and the egg is one of the most beautiful of any of the Heron-like birds, being of a deep greenish-blue, darker and richer in tint than the eggs of any species of Herons. We now approach the great group of swimming birds, such as the Ducks, the Pelicans, and their allies; but, before arriving at the consideration of these well-marked orders, there intervenes a remarkalile form of bird, the Flamingo. In its long legs and long neck it might well be taken for a kind of Heron or Stork; and, indeed, until recent years, the position of the Flamingoes was considered to be in close proximity to the last-named birds. They are, however, more nearly allied to the Ducks and Geese, having a desmognathous or "bridged" palate ; while the young are hatched covered with down, and are able to run about in a few hours and obtain food for them- selves. These features they possess in common with the Ducks and Geese and the Screamers, and these three groups were united by Huxley into one natural order, The Flamingoes resemble the Ducks and Geese in having the sides of the bill laminated, an arrangement which enables them to sift their food in the way which every one of our readers must have seen tame Ducks do in a far
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