Ibis

i'bis, a family of wading birds allied to the stork, heron, and crane. Four species are known in North America, the white, the scarlet, the glossy, and the white-faced glossy ibis. The white ibis breeds in flocks as far north as Indiana. It frequents mud flats and lives on frogs, snails, and small fish. The nest is made of weed stalks and coarse grasses, in bushes, trees, or reedy marshes. The birds fly in close rank, like a moving cloud of animated white. The scarlet ibis, once known in Florida, must be sought along the reedy shores and on the islands of the Orinoco. The glossy ibis is a bird of the West Indies. It is seen occasionally in the Gulf States. The white-faced glossy ibis, a rich chestnut-colored bird twenty-four inches in length, is found from Texas southwestward. Our so-called black and white wood-ibis, forty inches in length, is a sort of stork. It is found in flocks and nests in colonies.

The ibis of the Egyptians was held sacred. It appeared with the overflow of the Nile and disappeared when the waters receded. As the migration of birds was not understood, the ibis was supposed to spring into existence extraordinarily. In popular estimation the ibis freed the country from the invasion of serpents. A feather frightened the crocodile away. Ibises were kept in the temples and were embalmed at death. Ibis mummies are found in Thebes and Memphis and many other sacred cities. They are carefully wrapped in linen and sealed with wax, the legs and neck being bent to the body. Some are sealed in coffins of wood or stone, and some are found in earthen jars. It was a crime punishable with death to kill an ibis.