^1 



yHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



[anno J 771. 



these he discovered a rare bird, not before known to him.* It is of a new 

 genus, and the only species of the genus hitherto known to him. ' It is about 

 the size of a heron, see fig. 1, pi. 3;-f- and has a good deal of the appearance of 

 birds of the heron and crane kind, except that the neck is a little shorter. On 

 first sight, he thought the bird belonged to that genus ; but, on a closer view, 

 he judged it to be no wader in the water, for though the legs be as long or 

 longer than in herons, &c. yet they are feathered down to the knees, which we 

 do not find in birds who wade in shallow waters, to seek their food. The toes 

 in this bird are also much shorter than they are in herons, so that he thinks it 

 must be placed among land birds. The bill is exactly like those of hawks, and 

 other birds of prey, which is the only instance he has discovered in any of the 

 long legged kind of birds; the talons or claws are small and unfit for a bird of 

 prey, and the eyes are of a dark colour, placed in spaces covered with a bare skin 

 of an orange colour, on each side of the head. It has a beautiful crest, com- 

 posed of many long painted feathers tipped with black, hanging backward. The 

 beak, head, neck, back, breast, and upper covert feathers of the wings, are of 

 a bluish ash-colour, rather lighter on the breast than on the back. The belly, 

 thighs, the greater wing-feathers, and tail, are black, the tail feathers being 

 tipped with white; the legs and feet are of a reddish flesh-colour, the claws black. 

 This bird was called a snake-eater, by those who brought it from India. He 

 believes it may prey on small serpents, lizards, and other small reptiles. An- 

 other bird was brought with this, supposed to be the male of this species, which 

 died soon after it was landed. Mr. Raymond's servant said it was something 

 larger, and the crest longer, the head black, but that in other respects the two 

 birds agreed. 



f^I. An Extract from the Register of the Pmish of Holy Cross in Salop, being 

 a Second Decade of Years, from Michaelmas 1760, to Michaelmas 1770, 

 carefully digested in the following Table. By the Rev. fVilliam Gorfuch, 

 Minister of that Parish, p. 57. 



Baptized, {^^11^ 



u . J f males 

 ^""'^'l' {female, 



Total. 



Increase 



17. 



• This singular bird is the Falco serpentarius of the Graelinian edition of the Systema Naturae, but 

 by Mr. Latham in his Ornithology is with more propriety referred to the genus Vultur, under the 

 name of Vultur terpentarius. 



+ This bird was described, under the name of the Sagittarius from the Cape of Gkxjd Hope, by 

 Mr. Vosmaer, keeper of the Stadtholder's museum at the Hague, in one of his publications in low 



