I 24 ]. 
clence: and of the Snake killer* of the Indies, from 
the living bird belonging to Captain Raymond, at 
Valentines in EJJex, and which he gave adefcription of in 
the above mentioned collection of the Royal Society. 
He left an edition of Willoughby’s Ornithology 
with MS. notes, and many curious obfervations. In 
thele notes he corrected the miftakes and fupplied 
the omiflions of former writers. They are (oon in- 
tended to be given to the public who has fo generous¬ 
ly encouraged his former labors.* 
He 
* Th.e Dutch call it Slang eater from the avidity with which it devours 
Snakes ; three birds of this fpecies were brought to this kingdom from the 
Cape of Good Hope. One of them meafured three feet from the extremi¬ 
ties to the crown of the head s the eye is bright and piercing, furrounded 
with yellow, which in the fore part extends to the bill: the feathers of 
the thigh, the point of the wings, and the extremity of the tail, are black, 
the reft white or light grey ; the feathers which extend from the head and 
neck, are no fmall ornament to the bird. 
The natives of the fouthern promontory of Africa , fay that in the inland 
parts of that continent, this fingular bird is held in high veneration. 
Some afiert it is the Ibis of the antients ; but perhaps that opinion has little 
to confirm it. Jofephus relates on no very authentic grounds, that Mofes 
preferved his army from a multitude of deilroying ferpents by means of the 
Iris, of which he colle&ed numbers in his travels. Captain Purvis in¬ 
troduced the Snake eater into England , in one of the India Company’s 
Ships in 1759. 
