342 PLANTAIN-EATER. 



are fine purple in the middle ; tail long,* cuneiform, obtuse, coloured 

 as the quills ; legs very strong, dusky black. 



This beautiful bird is found on the Plains near the borders of 

 Rivers in the Province of Acra in Guinea, and is said to live princi- 

 pally on fruits of the Plantain,! it is very rare, for with every pains 

 taken by M. Isert, he could only obtain one specimen. 



I have ventured to join this with the Royal Cuckow of the Leve- 

 rian Museum, as it seems to agree, except in the disposition of the 

 toes, which in the engraving are placed two before and two behind ; 

 this, however, may be reconciled by supposing the bird capable 

 of placing them in two different positions at will, a circumstance 

 observed also in the Touraco, and some other birds ; however, the 

 assertion of M. Isert, that the toes were situated as his figure repre- 

 sents, ought to have weight, as he took his description from a fresh 

 killed bird. 



A drawing, said to have been taken from a specimen in the 

 Museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, has some time since been 

 shewn to me, which appears to be this bird. The length full two 

 feet ; breadth three ; bill in shape like the foregoing, covered with a 

 cere as far as the nostrils, the upper mandible having a notch near 

 the tip; length of the bill one inch and a half; depth one inch; 

 diameter at the base three quarters of an inch; it differs from the 

 first described in being attached at the back part, and not elevated 

 from the base ; the head at top is somewhat crested, dusky ; round 

 the eye black ; chin pale flesh-colour ; hind part of the neck and 

 back pale dusky blue ; the under parts of the body pale yellowish 

 brown ; thighs and vent rufous; tail cuneiform, dusky blue ; base of 

 two or more of the outer feathers white, across all a broad black bar 

 near the end; the outer quill shortest, the eighth longest of all, and 



* M. Isert says the tail has only nine feathers ; this might be the case in his specimen, 

 but as we know of no bird in which the tail feathers are not even in number, we may sus- 

 pect that it originally had ten, or even more, when in complete feather. 



f Musa Paradisiaca et Sapientum. 



