HOOPOE. Ill 



a violet gloss, marked as in the last bird ; legs red ; hind toe and 

 claw long, and all the claws hooked, strong, and black. 



With this is a Variety, having an uniformly black tail. These 

 said to be in Abyssinia, in flocks of 20, 30, or more, in each ; often 

 observed feeding on the figs of the Ficus Sycomorus, and when they 

 are disturbed, to make a prodigious chattering. 



11.— LESSER BLACK PROMEROPS. 



LENGTH nine inches. Bill one inch and a quarter long, dusky 

 brown ; head glossy black, with a purplish tinge ; body, above and 

 beneath, deep brown black ; wings and tail black, and glossy; the 

 greater quills black, but about the middle white, more or less, on 

 both webs, but the two outer only on the inner, forming a bar ; the 

 ends of all ash-colour, deeper nearest the tips; the tail slightly 

 cuneiform, four inches and a half long, the outer feather three inches 

 and a half, colour wholly plain black ; legs black ; the first quill 

 shortest, the three next of one length, after which the rest shorten 

 by degrees. 



A second of these was marked much in the same manner, but the 

 upper parts of the neck and back having a gloss of bright-copper, 

 and all beneath from the chin dusky brown black ; the quills much 

 the same, as to the white bar across them ; but the bastard wing is 

 white : there is also a square spot of white near the end of the outer 

 web of the exterior tail feather. 



These birds are in the collection of Mr. Comyns, who obliged me 

 with them for the sake of the description, and ave said to have been 

 from Senegal. I have also seen, in Mr. Bullock's Museum, one 

 similar in size with the above, but with markings of white both in 

 the quills and tail ; at first sight they may be supposed to be the 

 young of the Red-billed species ; but it must be observed,that although 



