194 WHITE-EARED HONEYGUIDE. 



has recoiled upon his own memory ; but that such 

 an observer as Le Yaillant should join in the same 

 opinion, will surprise every one who has not de- 

 tected the peculiar blemish in the character of this 

 otherwise unprejudiced observer. Le Yaillant, 

 throughout his works, allows no merit to any one ; 

 he is perpetually catching at every error or fault of 

 Buffon, and attempting to ridicule all scientific 

 classifications ; his vanity could not brook the idea, 

 that Sparman should have made an ornithological 

 discovery in the very country he had traversed, but 

 which had escaped his observation ; and his strong 

 prejudice makes him deny a fact which every one 

 upon the spot knew perfectly well. Accordingly, 

 we find that Mr. Barrow observes, " Every one in 

 that country is too well acquainted with the Honey- 

 guide to have any doubts as to the certainty either 

 respecting the bird or its information of the re- 

 positories of bees." If more evidence was wanting 

 than this and other similar confirmations of Dr. 

 Sparman's statement, it will be found in the fol- 

 lowing note by M. "Wiedeman, attached by a label 

 to the specimen from which the subsequent descrip- 

 tion was taken. " So soon as this bird sees a man 

 in the woods, where a bee's nest is in the neigh- 

 bourhood, he flies before the man, and cries shirt ; 

 shirt! shirt!" 



"We shall now transcribe our original description 

 of this species, from a very fine specimen made in 

 the year 1817- General plumage above brownish- 

 grey ; chin, as far as the ears, covered by a uniform 



