3. The white ibis of the ancients is not the ibis of Perrault and Buffon, which is a Tantalus; nor the ibis of Hasselquist, which is an Ardea; nor the ibis of Maillet, which is a Vulture; but it is a bird of the genus Numenius, and of the sub-genus Ibis, which has hitherto been described and figured only by Bruce, under the name of Abou-Hannes. I give it the name of Numenius ibis, albus, capite et collo adulti nudis, remigum apicibus, rostro et pedibus nigris, remigibus secondariis elongatis nigro-violaceis.
4. The black ibis of the ancients is probably the bird which we know in Europe under the name of Green Curlew, or the Scolopax Falcinellus of Linnæus. It also belongs to the genus Numenius, and to the sub-genus Ibis.
5. The Tantalus Ibis of Linnæus, in the present state of synonymy, comprehends four species of three different genera, namely,
1. A Tantalus, the ibis of Perrault and Buffon;
2. An Ardea, the ibis of Hasselquist;
3. and 4. Two Numenii, the ibis of Belonius, and the ox-bird of Shaw.
From this example, and so many others, one may judge of the state in which the Systema Naturæ still exists, which it would be of so much advantage to purge by degrees of the errors with which it abounds, and which would seem to be every day increasing, by the addition of species, characters, and synonyms, made without selection and without critical examination.
The general conclusion of the whole investigation is, that the Ibis still exists in Egypt, as it did in the days of the Pharaohs, and, that it was owing to the inaccuracy of naturalists that the species was for some time thought to be extinct, or to have been altered in its forms.