Sir W. Jardine on the Habits of Prionites. $23 
in their distribution ; that which we have now under consider- 
ation, we do not know as inhabiting the continent at all. 
Mr. Swainson gives the Bahama isles generally as its native 
country; and in the locality of the specimens before us we 
have it stretching to the very south-eastern extremity of the 
West Indian islands, but we do not know if the species occurs 
also in Cuba, St. Domingo, &c., or continuously along the 
group; on the continent the first species which occurs in 
Guiana* and the Brazils is the old P. Brasiliensis. 
Our active correspondent in Tobago has procured and for- 
warded to us skins and specimens in spirits of what we con- 
sider to be the P. Bahamensis of Swainson+, which have en- 
abled us partially to examine its internal structure; but be- 
fore noticing this or making any remarks upon the place the 
group should occupy in our system, we shall transcribe Mr. 
Kirk’s observations upon their habits, which may be usefully 
compared with the notes from various authors which we have 
given beneath. 
“This beautiful species, with his hair-like plumage and 
spatulated tail-feathers, is a very common and obtrusive bird 
in this island ; and it may be fairly said that if they are passed 
unobserved it will be no fault of their own, for they will sit 
and look stupidly down upon any intruder until he comes 
within a few yards, when they generally accost him with their 
usual low hollow-sounded note, Who, Who, which with very 
little ingenuity may be converted into Who are you? and, in- 
deed, reports are current of instances of their having been 
answered, in the belief that the question was put by a human 
being ; and when the Prionites demanded over and over again 
‘Who are you ?’ in a dark and solitary grove, it is not a mat- 
ter of surprise that a poor ignorant African (as the story goes) 
should, after giving an explanation which proved unsatisfac- 
tory, take to his heels and leave the ‘ king’ in the undisputed 
possession of his forest. 
“The Prionites of Tobago builds a nest, or rather occupies 
the cavity of some deserted yellow ant’s nest, or other hole, 
generally in the bank of a road or gully, or scaur by the side 
of some rivulet, though it does not follow that it should al- 
ways be near water. The entrance is generally very small, 
from two to two inches and a half in diameter, and the hole 
is pierced from three to nine feet into the bank, sometimes 
directly in, at other times along the bank, parallel, and at no 
* The specimens brought home by Mr. Schomburgk from Guiana were 
all P. Brasiliensis. 
+ Two centenaries and a quarter.—Lard. Cyclop., Animals in Mena- 
geries, p. 332. 
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