Class II. GLOSSY IBIS. 31 



small dilatable pouch; head and neck black; 

 the feathers fringed with white ; the rest of the 

 body variegated with blackish blue-green, and 

 is vinaceous, and in general very glossy, hence 

 the bird, on flying, appears gilded when the sun 

 shines upon it; quils green gold, and when 

 closed reach the end of the tail ; wing coverts 

 next the body reddish and blue mixed; the 

 next series, black, red, and green -, the last and 

 quils green gold ; tail the same, glossed in dif- 

 ferent lights with red and violet; legs very 

 long, of a bright green ; claws crooked, black." 

 Our friend, the reverend Hugh Dames, com- 

 municated a drawing* of the same bird to Dr. 



* The editor subjoins the following note at Mr. Davies's 

 request, though the reader may agree with him in thinking that 

 the mistake into which that able naturalist accidentally fell, 

 does not require so ample an apology. 



*' As it is and ever has been fully my wish that no mistake, 

 which I may have it in my power to rectify (particularly if such 

 may have originated by my means) shall remain unadj usted j I 

 have, with no very small degree of anxiety, been thinking of a 

 method to make a necessary apology to my friend Dr. Shaw, 

 and the public, for an inaccurate communication which I 

 unfortunately made to him, and which he has inserted in No. 

 igO of the Naturalist'' s Miscellany , respecting the bird which I 

 mistook for a Scolopax of Linnceus, a Numenius of Dr. La- 

 tham ; I beg leave at the same time to do myself the justice 

 of stating how the mistake took place. The subject, from 

 which I made the drawing and took the description, forms a 

 part of the collection of the ingenious Miss Meyrick at Beauma- 

 ris; I did not see the bird till it was converted into a picture. 



