were perfectly clean, as was the case also with regard to a still larger one, fourteen feet long, which I had
an opportunity of examining; nor could I discover any of the leeches and other parasites said to exist there.”
Mr. Cavendish Taylor says, “ I did not see this pretty species ” (the Plumanus A"Egyptius) “ below Cairo;
but above I found it everywhere numerous. This is the bird which enjoys the credit of being the Trochilos
of Herodotus, and as a matter of fact, I may state that I seldom saw a Crocodile on land without seeing
a Plumanus ¿Egyptius near him.”-—‘Ibis’ 1859, p. 52.
The Rev. H. B. Tristram informs us that this bird was shot by the Rev. Ridley H. Herschell in the
valley of the Jordan, a circumstance which entitles the species to a place in the ‘ B irds o f Asia.’
Crown of the head, lores, stripe beneath and behind the eye, down the sides o f the neck, back of the
neck, upper part of the back, lengthened feathers down the centre of the back, and a narrow gorget
extending from the sides of the neck across the lower p art of the breast steely black ; a narrow stripe over
each eye, from the nostrils to the occiput, white; primaries black and white, the latter hue occupying the
centre o f the feathers ; secondaries white, crossed by a broad band of black near the tip, beyond which is
a narrow line o f white; remainder of wings, scapularies, and back grey, separated from the black of the
upper part of the back by a broad line o f wh ite ; tail grey, tipped with white, the two colours separated on
the lateral feathers by a narrow bar of black; throat and under surface white, washed with buff, which
gradually increases in depth until it becomes deep saudy buff on the vent and under tail-coverts; irides
dark brown ; legs and feet pale blue.
The Plate represents the bird of the natural size, with several reduced figures around and in the mouth
of a Crocodile.