Essay on the Theory of the EarthCuvier, Georges, baron
Science
Essay on the Theory of the Earth
Cuvier, Georges, baron
Geology; Paleontology
The paintings of Herculaneum no longer leave any doubt on the
subject. Plates 138 and 140 of David’s edition, and vol. ii. p. 315,
pl. 59, and p. 321, pl. 60 of the original edition, which represent
Egyptian ceremonies, shew several ibises walking in the court of
the temples. The characteristic blackness of the head and neck are
in particular recognised, and it is easily seen from the proportion
which their figure bears to the persons in the painting, that it must
have been a bird of half a metre at the most, and not of a metre, or
thereabouts, like the Tantalus ibis.
The mosaic of Palestine, also presents in its middle part several
ibises perched upon buildings. They differ in nothing from those of
the paintings of Herculaneum. A Sardonyx of Dr Mead’s Collection,
copied by Shaw, App. pl. v., and representing an ibis, seems to be
a miniature of the bird which we have described. A medal of Adrian,
in large bronze, represented in the Farnesian Museum, vol. vi.
pl. xxviii. fig. 16, and another of the same emperor, in silver,
represented in vol. iii. pl. vi. fig. 9, afford figures of the ibis,
which, notwithstanding their smallness, are pretty like our bird.
With regard to the figures of the ibis, sculptured upon the plinth
of the statue of the Nile, at Belvedere, and upon the copy of it at
the garden of the Tuileries, they are not sufficiently finished to
serve as proofs; but among the hieroglyphics of which the Institute
of Egypt has caused impressions to be made upon the spot, there are
several which distinctly represent our bird. In plate iii. fig.
1, we give one of these impressions which M. Geoffroy has had the
politeness to communicate to us.
We insist particularly on this latter figure, because it is the most
authentic of all, having been made at the time, and on the spot where
the ibis was worshipped, and being cotemporary with its mummies;
while those which we have cited above, having been made in Italy, and
by artists who did not profess the Egyptian worship, might have been
less faithful.
We owe to Bruce the justice of saying, that he recognised the bird
which he describes under the name of _Abou-Hannes_, as the true
ibis. He says expressly, that this bird appeared to him to resemble
that which the mummy pitchers contained; and further, that this
Abou-Hannes, or _Father John_, is very common on the banks of the
Nile, while he never saw there the bird represented by Buffon, under
the name of the White Ibis of Egypt.
M. Savigny, one of the naturalists of the expedition to Egypt,
equally asserts his not having seen the _Tantalus_ in that country,
but he obtained a great number of our _Numenius_ near the Lake
Menzale, in Lower Egypt, and carried their skins with him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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