UPUPID^. 65 



obtaining specimens, as the bird, the moment it finds 

 itself observed, flits about incessantly amongst the 

 foliage, or is lost to view by gliding rapidly to the 

 opposite side of a tree. Its flight is short, rising and 

 dipping alternately. 



The irides in this species are intensely dark brown, 

 almost black, the legs and toes bluish brown. 



Average dimensions of four males : 



Entire length . . . 

 Length of folded wing 



„ tarsus . . 



„ middle toe . 



„ tail . . . 



„ bill . . , 



in. lin. 



9 8 



5 4 



10 



8 



3 8i 



2 1 



82. Irrisor erythrorhynchos (Lath.). Ked-biUed Irrisor. 



Le Promerops moqueur, Levaillant's Hist. Nat. dea Promerops et 



Gu^piers, pis. 1, 2, 3. 

 Irrisor erythrorhyncus, Strickland & Sclater, Birds Damar., Contr. 



Orn. 1852, p. 154. 

 Irrisor senegalensis, Gurney, Birds Damar., Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 2. 

 Irrisor erythrorynchos, Layard's Cat. No. 119. 

 Iriisor erythrorhynchus, Chapman's Travels in S. Afr., App. pp. 255 

 and 406. 

 „ „ Finsch & Hartlaub's Vbgel Ost-Afrika's 



p. 202. 

 , , „ Finsch, in Trans, of Zool. Soc. vol. vii. p. 226. 



„ „ Sharpe's Cat. No. 81. 



This species is not uncommon in Damara Land and 

 the parts adjacent to the north and east, extending to 

 Lake Ngami. 



It lives in small flocks, probably consisting of entire 

 families — which frequent trees, chiefly of the larger kinds, 

 and examine them most assiduously in search of insects 

 and their larvse, which they extract from crevices in 

 the wood and from beneath the bark. These birds 



