RINGED GOWRIE. 53 



in the form of its beak and body, as also in the 

 largeness of its eyes. Its feathers were all gl ossy . 



" When the tail is half-spread it forms a straight 

 line at the end; when more, a curve like a fan. 

 When by any accident this bird falls to the ground, 

 it creeps or scrambles to some rock or shrub, where 

 bending its tail and expanding its wings, it elevates 

 its body, and at the same time throwing its legs 

 forward, catches hold of the rock, &c., with its claws, 

 and climbing up to a proper height, throws itself 

 back and recovers its wings. 



" This bird was brought to me March 5th, 1759 ; 

 it had fallen from a tree by some accident, and 

 was taken up by a negro, before it could recover." 



The above notes in some degree arranged, and 

 slightly abridged, I quote from Robinson's valua- 

 ble MSS., who was evidently much interested in 

 the bird he has so minutely described. That in- 

 terest I myself felt in no small degree, on reading 

 his notes, as there appear manifest indications of 

 an intermediate link between the diurnal and noc- 

 turnal Fissirostres. It was therefore with very 

 much pleasure that I saw on the 4th of last April, 

 what I believe to have been the present species. 

 At Content, in St. Elizabeth, as evening ap- 

 proached, after a little rain, swallows of three 

 species were careering around the mountain: the 

 White bellied Swallow and the Palm Swift were 

 numerous, and among them was a very large black 

 species, with a white collar, rather less numerous, 

 prodigiously rapid in flight. I vainly endeavoured 

 to shoot it. A fortnight afterwards, about half an 



