bird raising its feathers so as to appear not unlike a puflf ball ; 

 hence the general name they have received from the English 

 residents in Brazil ; of which vast country all the species, I 

 believe, are natives. When frightened, their form is suddenly 

 clianged by the feathers lying quite flat; they are very con- 

 fiding, and will often take their station within a few yards of 

 the window ; the two sexes are generally near each other, 

 and often on the same tree. 



Total length rather more than eight inches ; bill, one inch 

 and three quarters from the gape, and half an inch less from 

 the nostrils ; it is very strong, thick, black, and slightly com- 

 pressed ; the tip of the upper bifid ; the bristles at its base 

 covering the nostrils are long and incurved, and those situated 

 at the base, under the eye, very stiff; the upper part of the 

 head black, the feathers much lengthened ; the sides, front, 

 ears, and forepart of the throat white, uniting at the back of 

 the head into a narrow collar. The whole of the remaining 

 plumage above is black, glossed with greenish ; across the 

 breast a black bar, which separates the white of the throat 

 from the buff colour which tinges the abdomen and vent ; the 

 flanks are marked with dusky transverse stripes ; the tail is 

 slightly rounded and three inches and a half long, some of 

 the feathers with a very fine line of white at their tips ; all 

 the quill feathers have the base half of their inner shafts 

 white, as well as the greater covers inside, the lesser being 

 black ; legs and claws blackish. 



I am disposed to consider this bird only as a variety of the 

 Greater pied Barhiit of Dr. Latham, differing in having the 

 plumage on the under part of the body pale ferruginous, or 

 buff colour, instead of white, as in the specimens he described 

 from Cayenne ; mine are from Southern Brazil, where the 

 species is not uncommon. 



This genus includes the American species of the Linnaean 

 Barbuts ; the birds connecting this group with the cuckows 

 are arranged by Vieillot in a separate genus, named by him 

 MoJiassa ; which I think should be retained, as it is of much 

 importance to designate strongly connecting links between 

 families apparently very opposite. 



