. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE SACRED IBIS. 559 well suited for tearing to pieces tlie substances on which the bird feeds. Its color is brown, mottled profusely with a deep mahogany tinge. The general color of the plumage is dark slaty-gray above, each feather being edged with a narrow band of grayisli-white. The feathers of the front of the neck are pointed, very dark in the centre, and broadly edged with gray. The under surface is gi-ay. IBIS. The Sacred Ibis is one of a rather curious group of birds. "With
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE SACRED IBIS. 559 well suited for tearing to pieces tlie substances on which the bird feeds. Its color is brown, mottled profusely with a deep mahogany tinge. The general color of the plumage is dark slaty-gray above, each feather being edged with a narrow band of grayisli-white. The feathers of the front of the neck are pointed, very dark in the centre, and broadly edged with gray. The under surface is gi-ay. IBIS. The Sacred Ibis is one of a rather curious group of birds. "With one exception they are not possessed of brilliant coloring, the feathers being mostly white and deep purj^lish-black. The Scarlet Ibis, however, is a most magnificent, though not very large bird, its plumage being of a glowing scarlet, relieved by a few patches of black. The Sacred Ibis is so called because it figures largely in an evidently sacred character on the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. It is a migratory bird, arriving in Egypt as soon as the ^^-^mi!^^ > ? / '"^"^IL. SACHEH IBIS. ItiisoU/iiofiica. waters of the Nile begin to rise, and remaining in that land until the waters have subsided, and thei'efore deprived it of its daily supplies of food. The bird probably owes its sacred character to the fact that its appearance denotes the rising of the Nile, an annual phenomenon on which depends the prosperity of the whole country. Sometimes the Ibis stalks in solitary state along the banks of the river, or the many water- courses that intersect the low country, but sometimes associates in little flocks of eight or ten in number. Its food consists mostly of mollusks, both terrestrial and aquatic, but it will eat worms, insects, and probably the smaller reptiles. The Ibis was at one time thought to kill and eat snakes, and this idea was strengthened by the fact that Cuvier detected the scales and bones of snakes within a mummied coii^se of an Ibis which was found
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
