File:Cassell's natural history (1854) (14750133782).jpg

Identifier: cassellsnaturalh00newy (find matches)
Title: Cassell's natural history
Year: 1854 (1850s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York : A. Montgomery
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ir i 1, by wliicli means (hey raise a small round sort of gram, iocmliling millet, whicli lliey receive into their bills \and as there i.s a necessity for receiving intotlicir moutli some mud. Nature has provided • lliirini()))t(nis Cliilinsis Mciliim. THE JAIUKU. 491 the edges of their liills with a sieve, (ir teedi like a line eiiiiil), witli whieli (hey leUiiii thefood, and eject the mud wliieli is taken in with it. This aecoiiut 1 had troni persons oferedit; but I never saw them feeding myself, and, therefore, eaunot al)solutely refutethe o2)iniou of others who say they feed on tisli, partieularly eels, wliiuh seeiu to be theslippery prey Dr. Grew says that tlie teeth are contrived to liold. * The bird represented in the ei)gra\ing with the flamingo is one of a genus calledJdhirii, and of a gigantic size. Tiie bill is long, conical, smooth, robust, compressed, andpointed. The head and neck arc more or less bare of feathers. The anterior toes areunited at the base Ijy a membrane.
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^^^W^ •iht; s\ri!Kn iius.* The earliest account ol lln- Hiis lliat \\v liavu is Iloiii tlio \)vn oiiroioddlus, an eye-witness :— The ibis is all o\or very black ; it has the legs of u crane, and a beak con-siderably curved ; its size is about that of u crij: .Such is the appearance of the black • ll)i» uligiuMi. Tin: >Atl!KD U!IS. 493 ibis, wliiuh tights against the serpents. 15ut the other ibis, whicli is inoic of a domesticbird (for there are two kinds), has the liead and all tire ncclc bar.- of feath?v.-i ; it is of awliite colour, except the head, neck, and extremities of the wings and tail, all whichparts aio very black. As to its legs and beak, it resembles tlu- other kind of ibis.According to Herodotus, the black ibis devoured the winged serpents which jearlyattempted to make their enlry into Egypt from Arabia; but tltese, it is scarcely necessaryto adil, are merely fabulous reptiles. Strabo, who was som.e time in Egypt, ^ivcs the following account:— The ibis is the

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