The late M. Macé sent from Bengal to the Museum several individuals of a species very nearly allied to this, which has the beak a little longer, and less arched, of which the first quill only has a little black on the two edges of its point, and of which the secondary quills are also somewhat attenuated, and slightly tinged with reddish.
It appears, according to M. Savigny, p. 25, that M. Levaillant observed another still, which has the secondary quills similarly elongated, but of which the neck always retains its feathers, and whose face is of a red colour.
The same M. Macé also sent us a tantalus, very much resembling that which has been regarded by naturalists as the ibis, but of which the small wing-coverts, and a broad band at the lower part of the breast, are black, and speckled with white. The last secondary quills are elongated, and tinged with rose-colour. It is known that, in the Tantalus ibis of naturalists, the small wing-coverts are speckled with purplish red, and that the whole under part of the body is white.
We give here a table of the parts of some of these birds, which could be accurately measured in stuffed individuals. By comparing them with those of the skeletons of embalmed ibises, one may judge if it were possible to believe for a single moment that these mummies belonged to the tantalus.
| Parts of the Body. | Length of the beak, from its commissure to the tip, | Length of the naked part of the leg, | Length of the tarsus, | Length of the middle toe, |
| Tantalus Ibis of Naturalists. | 0.210 | 0.130 | 0.190 | 0.105 |
| Macé’s Indian Tantalus. | 0.265 | 0.150 | 0.250 | 0.115 |
| Numenius Ibis the true Ibis of the Ancients. | 0.125 | 0.041 | 0.085 | 0.080 |
| Numenius Ibis, measured by M. Savigny. | 0.154 | 0.056 | 0.097 | 0.092 |
| Macé’s Numenius. | 0.148 | 0.055 | 0.095 | 0.083 |
| Labillardiere’s Numenius. | 0.165 | 0.040 | 0.084 | 0.086 |
| Peron’s Numenius. | 0.131 | 0.034 | 0.080 | 0.078 |
| Leschenault’s Numenius. | 0.132 | 0.044 | 0.093 | 0.086 |
Let us now examine the books of the ancients and their monuments; let us compare what they have said of the ibis, or the figures of it which they have traced, with the bird which we have been describing; and we shall see all our difficulties vanishing, and all the testimonies according with what is best of all for the purpose, the body itself of the bird preserved in the mummy.
“The most common ibises,” says Herodotus, (Euterpe, No. 76.) “have the head and the fore-part of the neck bare, the plumage white, excepting on the head, the nape, the ends of the wings and of the rump, which are black.[355] Their beak and feet are similar to those of the other ibises.”
How does it happen that the travellers of our times do not make so good descriptions of the birds which they observe as that which Herodotus has made of the ibis? How could this description have been applied to a bird which has only the face bare, and which has that part of a red colour, to a bird which has the rump white, and not covered over at least as ours by the black feathers of the wings?