Ibis, Famous Bird of Harvard Funsters, Disappears From Lampoon Sanctum--Indefinite Clues Point to New Haven

New Haven, Conn., May 23--No information received here concerning stolen Ibis. Record disavows knowledge of crime. Will wire further reports. Yale News.

Rumors, which began with a mysterious long-distance call to a Boston newspaper, that the Ibis, traditional and sacred bird of the Harvard Lampoon, was stolen from the Sanctum of the Lampoon Building Wednesday evening, found credence in the admission by Paul Brooks '31, President of the organization, that it was missing yesterday morning.

The only definite clue in the hands of the investigators, it is said, was the report of one of the Harvard special police force that he had heard the Lampoon bell ringing at four o'clock in the morning. As the bell is customarily rung only on initiation nights, he decided to investigate the case. Approaching the building, he said, he perceived a car with Connecticut license plates, and containing several occupants, bear away from the side door at a high rate of speed.

When interviewed by a CRIMSON reporter late last night, Brooks admitted the absence of the Ibis. "We missed it this morning, but have no definite proof of the robbers," he said. "However, we are not worrying about it as they are sure to return it." He refused to discuss the value of the bird.

The presence of a Connecticut car causes the view in some quarters that the sacred bird was stolen by Yale undergraduates in reprisal for the Harvard paper's famed coup of the Yale fence last fall. At the time of writing no answer had been received from the Yale News in response to a query earlier in the evening whether the rumors are also current on the Eli campus. In most quarters, however, the suspicion prevails that the robbery is merely a myth invented by the Lampoon as another of its notorious publicity stunts for its forthcoming issue.