We know in a manner not to doubt, that in ancient times Egypt was inhabited, and extended to the edges of the Libyan Desert; nay, in some places, considerably into it; large lakes were dug in this country by their first kings, and these, filled in the time of the Nile’s inundation, continued immense reservoirs, which were let out by degrees to water the plantations and pleasure-ground that had been created by man, in what was formerly a desert. Nothing in fact was wanting but water, and these large lakes supplied this want abundantly, by furnishing water of the purest and most perfect kind: in the neighbourhood of these artificial plantations, there can be no doubt the viper must be a nuisance. Being indigenous in this his domicil, it is not probable he would quit it easily, and any deficiency of them in number would not have failed to be supplied from the deserts in the neighbourhood. The prodigious pools of stagnant water would bring the Ibis thither, and place him near his enemy, and after man had once discerned his use, gratitude would soon lead him to reward him. But after, when these immense lakes, and the conduits leading to them, were neglected, and the works ruined which conducted these artificial inundations, and covered the deserts of Libya with verdure; when war and tyranny, and every sort of bad government, made people fly from the country, or live precariously and insecure in it, all this temporary paradise vanished: the land was overflowed no more; the sands of the desert resumed their ancient station; there were no inhabitants in the country, no pools of water for the Ibis, nor was the viper a nuisance. The Ibis retired to his native country Ethiopia, in the lower part of which, that is, in a hot country full of pools of stagnant water, he remains, and there I found him. It is probable in Egypt he had increased greatly by the quantity of food and good entertainment he had. Upon these failing, he probably died and wore out of Egypt; and in the proportion in which he was at first created, which seems to have been a slender one, he remained in his native Ethiopia, for his emigration and increase in Egypt was merely accidental. This, I apprehend, is the true cause why the Ibis is now no longer known in Egypt; but I am satisfied to restore him to natural history, with at least a probable conjecture, why he is now unknown in those very regions where once he was worshipped as a god. His figure appears frequently upon the obelisks among the hieroglyphics, and further confirms my conjecture that this is the bird. The Count de Buffon has published the bird, which he calls the white[79] Ibis of Egypt, the half of his head crimson, with a strong beak of a gold colour, liker to that of a toucan, and long, purple, weak legs, and a thick neck; in short, having none of the characters of the bird it is intended to represent.