606 I B I I B I mountain ranges of Germany, Switzerland, and the Ural, but lias since disappeared from the greater part of this area, being now almost wholly confined to the Alps which separate Valais from Piedmont, and to the lofty peaks of Savoy, where its continued existence is mainly due to the action of protective game laws. The ibex is a handsome animal, measuring about 4| feet in length and 2 feet high ; its skin is covered in summer with a short fur of an ashy grey colour, and in winter with much longer yellowish-brown hair concealing a dense fur beneath. A short beard is present in the male in winter, but, as it dis appears altogether in spring, Darwin regards this appendage as rudimentary. The horns, especially in the male, form a striking feature : rising from the crest of the skull, they bend gradually backwards, attaining a length in old specimens of about 2 feet ; they are thick and flat, and have the anterior face ridged with knotty transverse bands. In the female the horns never exceed half a foot in length, and are much less rugose than in the male. The front legs are somewhat shorter than those behind, which enables the ibex to ascend the mountain slopes with more facility than it can descend, while its hoofs, according to Tschudi, are " as hard as steel, rough underneath, and when walking- over a flat surface capable of being spread out." These, together with its powerful sinews, enable it to take prodigious leaps, to balance itself on the smallest foothold, and to scale almost perpendicular rocks. The ibex lives habitually at a greater height than the chamois or any other of the Alpine mammals, its vertical limit being the line of perpetual snow. There it rests in sunny nooks during the day, descending at night to the highest woods to graze, and retiring at sunrise to its snowy fastnesses. This return journey forms the ibex hunter s opportunity. To get within gunshot the huntsman has usually to approach from above; accordingly he ascends to the limit of per petual snow, and there passes the night among the daily haunts of the ibex, lying in wait from early dawn for its return. The ibexes are gregarious, feeding in herds of ten to fifteen individuals ; the old males, however, generally live apart from, and usually at greater elevations than, the females and young. They are said to give out a sharp whistling sound not unlike that of the chamois, but when greatly irritated or frightened they make a peculiar snorting noise. The period of gestation in the female is ninety days, after which she produces usually at the end of June a single young one, which is able at once to follow its mother. These when caught young and fed on goat s milk can, it is said, be readily tamed; and in the 16th century young tamed ibexes were, according to Tschudi, frequently driven to the mountains along with the goats, in whose company they would afterwards voluntarily return. Even wild speci mens have thus been known to stray among the herds of goats, although, strange to say, they at all times shun the society of the chamois. The ibex was formerly hunted largely for its flesh and skin; but, although the latter, owing to its scarcity, now commands a high price, the difficulty arising from the operation of the game laws, and above all the difficulty and danger inseparable from the sport, have reduced the number of hunters to a few hardy mountaineers, who find in the pursuit of the ibex the keenest enjoyment of life. For weeks the sportsman will follow a track across fields of ice, along narrow ledges, over precipices, and across chasms, nearly frozen to death at night, and often with little more than a crust of bread for sustenance, yet considering himself more than repaid by the sight at last of his prey grazing within range of his rifle. Its flesh is said to resemble mutton, but has a flavour of game. IBIS, one of the most sacred birds of the ancient Egyptians, which in modern times was identified by Bruce (Travels, v. p. 173, pi.) with the Abou-IIannes or "Father John" of the Abyssinians, and in 1790 received from Latham (Index Omithologicus, p. 706) the name of Tantalus cethiopicus. This determination was placed beyond all question by Cuvier (Ann. du Museum, iv. pp. 116-135) and Savigny (Hist. A T at. et Mythol. de I Ibis) in 1805. They, however, shewed tho removal of the bird from the Linnaean genus Tantalus to be necessary, and, Lacc"pede having some years before founded a genus Ibis, it was transferred thither, and is now generally known as /. cethiopiea, though some speak of it as /. reliyiosa. No useful purpose would be served by dwelling on the vain attempts of older writers to discover what the much vene rated bird was, or on the other synonyms applied to it by later ornithologists, some of whom (and among them the most recent) have shewn little acquaintance with the litera ture of the subject. Nor can the Ibis be here treated from a mythological or antiquarian point of view. Savigny s memoir above noticed contains a great deal of very interest ing matter on the subject. Wilkinson (Ancient Egyptians, ser. 2, ii. pp. 217-224) has thereto added some of the results of modern research, and latest of all Mr Renouf in his Ilibbert Lectures concisely explains the origin of the myth. The Ibis is chiefly an inhabitant of the Nile basin in Nubia, from Dongola southward, as well as of Kordofan and Sennaar ; whence (according to Savigny, whose oppor tunities for observation seem to have been greater than those enjoyed by any European since his time) about mid summer, as the river rises, it moves northwards to Egypt, and reaches the delta, 1 passing over the intermediate dis tricts, in a way not unknown elsewhere among migratory birds. In Lower Egypt it bears the name of Aboit-mengel, or "Father of the Sickle," from the form of its bill, but it does not stay long in that country, disappearing by all accounts when the inundation has subsided. Hence doubt less arises the fact that almost all European travellers have failed to meet with it there, 2 since their acquaintance with 1 It lias been said to occur occasionally in Europe (Greece and southern Russia), but further evidence is needed before the assertion can be taken as proved. 2 Mr E. C. Taylor remarked some years ago (Ibis, 1859, p. 51), that the Buff- backed Heron, Ardca bubulcus, was made by the tourists dragomans to do duty for the " Sacred Ibis," and this seems to be no novel practice, since by it, or something like it, Hasselqvist was mis
led, and through him Linnaeus.
