UPUPID.E. 



the bill, as depicted in ' The Naturalist's Library,' vol. xii. 

 p. 119. 



The irides in this species are a deep dark brown. 



Average dimensions of seven males and five females : — 



83. Irrisor cyanomelas (Vieill.). Namaqua Irrisor. 



Rhinopomastiis Smithii, Jardine, in Zool. Journ. vol. iv. pi. 1 . 

 Rhinopomastus ei/anomel.a<?, Strickland & Sclater, Birds Uamar., 



Conti". Orn. 1852, p. 155. 

 Irrisor cyanomelas, Layard's Cat. No. 120. 

 Promerops niger. Chapman's Travels in S. Afr., App. p. 407. 

 Irrisor cyanomelas, Finsch k Hartlaub, Vogel Ost-Afrika's, p. 207. 

 „ „ Sharpe's Cat. No. 83. 



This species is sparingly found throughout Damara 

 and Great Namaqua Land, but more rarely in the latter 

 than in the former country ; it is also met with on the 

 Okavango and Teoughe Rivers and about Lake Ngami. 

 It partakes much of the habits and manners of the true 

 Creepers, attaching itself to trees and examining them 

 in a similar manner, but sometimes with this difference, 

 that, after settling on a tree or stump (which it generally 

 does about halfway up), it carefully examines it in a 

 downward direction, and with its head downwards, thus 

 seeking for its usual food, which consists of ants and 

 other insects with their larvse ; having reached the base 

 of the tree or stump, it moves onwards to another, in a 

 similar manner to that adopted by the preceding species. 



f2 



