HOOPOE. 113 



the nostrils, the same on the under mandible; on the crown they are 

 scaly, stand somewhat erect, and of the most brilliant blue green 

 imaginable ; those of the nape much the same, but folded ; on each 

 side, below the ears, a bare space three quarters of an inch long;* 

 from the chin to the breast are the same brilliant blue green, scaly 

 feathers, having on the fore part a purplish gloss; across the breast, 

 at the bottom of the brilliant patch, a deep blue band, and beneath 

 it a broader of black ; many of the feathers, composing it, tipped 

 with gilded orange, and appearing, as an irregular, fire-coloured, 

 narrow band ; the sides of the neck behind, the back, wings, tail, 

 and under parts from the breast, purplish black, but next to the 

 band on the breast, tinged with green ; and the back of the neck 

 glossed with purple ; the tail is near five inches long, even at the 

 end, black, except the two middle feathers, which are glossy blue ; 

 from beneath the wings springs a set of long, loose-webbed feathers, 

 barbed on the sides, of different lengths, waving, and appearing like 

 those of the Paradise bird, but black, and some of them exceed the 

 end of the tail by four inches; legs stout, black; claws hooked. 



This bird seems to unite the Prouierops with the Paradise bird ; 

 having the bill as in the former, and the velvet-like feathers about 

 the bill, and the long loose webbed ones beneath the wings, as seen 

 in the latter ; the wings reach very little beyond the base of the tail. 



A specimen of the above was in the Museum of Mr. Bullock, but 

 I observed in this, that each feather, from the chin to the breast, had 

 a dash of black down the shaft ; from thence the under parts to the 

 vent blackish chestnut. In this specimen the fire-coloured band 

 across the breast is not very conspicuous. I find a fine representation 

 of the bird among the drawings of Mr. Dent, but in neither case is 

 there any mention from whence the respective species was brought. 

 In this last figure, I observe five or six distinct stouter feathers 



* This occurs in the specimens in Mr. Bullock's Museum; but I do not see it in the 

 drawings I have met with of the bird, and cannot therefore be certain of the circumstance^ 



VOL. IV. Q 



