WHY THE IBIS IS MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES?

The Ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the Order of the Pelicaniformes, also known as Ciguigne, Hibicis, Ibex, Ybeux. The bird stays near the edge of the water, looking for dead fish or other carrion to eat, because it does not know how to swim. They have long down curved bills, and usually feed as a group. Most species nest in trees. The Ibis is known for clearing the water from reptiles left by the inundation of the Nile.
The word Ibis comes from Greek, Latin, and Ancient Egyptian. According to the historian Josephus, Moses employed Ibises against serpents during a desert campaign in Ethiopia in his early life.
There is one, among other references in the Scriptures, God uses the bird to show humans the nature, instinct, and purpose each one of us has in his creation: "Who tells the Ibis when the Nile will flood, or who tells the rooster that rain will fall." If we use other translations, it will say, "Who has put wisdom in the innermost being or given understanding to the mind?"  The teaching refers to the mind realm and indirectly to the domain of Thot, the Egyptian god of mind and memory.
Living on the banks of the Nile, the Ibis is an element of the ancient Egyptian landscape. Sculpted in the 4th BC, the bird was venerated and often mummified. Egyptians revered the Ibis as an incarnation of Thot, who was the scribe of the gods and the creator of language. In the town of Hermopolis, Ibises were reared specifically for sacrificial purposes and at Saqqara, archaeologists found mummies of 1 1/2 million ibises and hundreds of thousands of falcons.
The Ibis also was associated with certain disciplines: writing, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy.
According to Herodotus and Pliny the Elder, the bird was invoked against incursions of winged serpents.
Herodotus (5th BC), in his History Book, wrote: There is a region moreover in Africa, situated nearly over the city of Buto, to which place I came to inquire about the winged serpents: and when I came thither I saw bones of serpents and spines in quantity so great that it is impossible to make a report of the number. The region in which the spines are scattered upon the ground is of the nature of an entrance from a narrow mountain pass to a great plain. which adjoins the plain of Egypt. At the beginning of spring  winged serpents come flying from Arabia towards Egypt, but are met in this entrance (gorge) by the birds called Ibises, who forbid their entrance and kill them all. The Arabians assert, and the Egyptians also admit, that it is on account of the service the Ibis is hold in so much reverence.
The description of the Black Ibis which contends with the serpents is :- a bird of a deep-black color, with legs like a crane; -its beak is strongly hooked, and its size is about that of the land-rail.
The commoner sort, for there are two quite distinct species, has the head and the whole throat bare of feathers; its general plumage is white, but the head and neck are jet black, as also are the tips of the wings and the extremity of the tail; in its beak and legs it resembles the other species."
Pliny the Elder (1st BC), in his Natural History Book, wrote: "The Ibis is a bird from Egypt. It is all over black, with a bill very thick in the beginning, but ending in a point, for better seizing its pray, which is caterpillars, locusts, and serpents. It uses its curved beak to purge itself through the part by which it is most conducive to health for the heavy residue of foodstuffs to be excreted. The people of Egyp invoke the Ibis to guard against the arrival of snakes. The Ibis is born black at Pelesium, but is white everywhere else."
According to local legend the Northern Bald Ibis was one of the first birds that Noah released from the Ark as a symbol of fertility, and a lingering sentiment in Turkey helped the colonies there to survive long after the demise of the species in Europe.
The mascot of the University of Miami is the White Ibis. The Ibis was selected because of its legendary bravery during hurricanes. The ibis is the last sign of wildlife to take shelter before a hurricane hits and the first to reappear once the storm has passed.