[ T 35 3 
Herculaneum), in whofe cataftrophe that writer loft 
his life. 
I am, 
S I R, 
Your moft obedient, 
humble fervant, 
London, Feb. 3, 1761. J. Nixon. 
XXIV. A Defcription of the Cepph us : In a 
Letter fro?n D. Lyfons, M. D % to Robert 
More, Efq^ F. R. S. 
S I R, All-fouls Coll. 0 ( 3 :. 17, 1760. 
Re^jApn 1 i6,rr^O fave you the trouble of taking 
' X an account of the bird I fent you, 
I have now taken the liberty to trouble you with the 
inclofed defcription, which is pretty near, though, 
perhaps, not quite exadt. Ray, in Willoughby’s Or- 
nithology, fays, this bird is yet to us unknown j and 
takes his delcription of it from Aldrovandus, who 
fays, it was not defcribed by any author before his 
time, that he knows of. 
The bird before us is, I think, the cepphus of 
Aldrovandus, though it does not agree in all points : 
perhaps, tnat he faw, might be a male, this a female. 
In his, the fides of the mandibles were of a dufky 
red, in this not. The eyes of his were partly red, 
which 
