In 1952, the Harvard Lampoon published a little book about itself, the first chapter of which described the Lampoon building in some detail. "The roof of the tower," it said, "is capped by a fantastic copper finial which terminates in a large and meditative Ibis."

Since December, 1961, when villains made their way to the top of the building, however, the tower has been capped by a fantastic copper finial which terminates in the claw and lower portion of the leg of an Ibis. Presumably, the change was effected with some diabolical cutting tool.

Yesterday, after almost two years in parts unknown, the sacred bird appeared, briefly and dramatically, over San Francisco Bay. This first clue to its where abouts caused great excitement in some Cambridge circles.

The Ibis, a rare bronze variety of Threskiornis aethiopica, has been missed before but never for so long a time. American Airlines pilot Edwin Walter, who saw the bird winging westward over the Golden Gate as he was preparing to land, said "it looked happy though homesick." Walter took several photographs of it from a cockpit window.

When news of the Ibis's reappearance reached Cambridge, several local organizations at once sent agents to San Francisco. A spokesman for the Lampoon said that the humor magazine "got the news late" but was "determined to get the bird."

Another agency-"Find-A-Bird, Inc." -announced it had put "all the men it could spare" on the "Ibis case." No one in Cambridge, however, seemed to know what (if anything) Find-A-Bird, Inc. was.