The Bifiory of A N I M. A L 8, 413 
The wings are long, and there are twenty-two large feathers in each3 thefe are of 
the fame deep colour with the back, but thofe which cover them, efpecialiy toward 
the top of the wing, are of the brighteft blue, like that of the head : the tail is very 
fhort, and is blue 3 the colour of the back of this bird greatly refembles that of the 
neck of a drake, which is blue in fome lights, and green in others3 or it more exadtly 
refembles that high tinge of the large humming bird, fo remarkable for it’s colour. 
The legs are very fhort, and of a very beautiful pale red : the toes are long, and 
the three anterior ones are connected a great way together: the claws are black, but 
not fharp. 
This is a native only of the Eaft Indies3 we had a fpecimen of it brought over 
about two years fince, which is now in my pofleflion, purchafed at an au&ion. None 
of the authors who have written on birds have named it, unlefs it be Charleton5 that 
author, in his Onomafticon Zoicon, talks of an Indian King-fifher not bigger than 
a wren : the fize very well agrees with this, but he has not left us any farther proofs 
of his acquaintance with it. 
Ifpida corpore fierrugineo , collo lunulce albo cinShc 
*The brown King-fifher , with a white collar . 
This has nothing of the elegant colouring, either of the Eaft Indian> or of the 
European fpecies, but it has very great beauty of another kind5 it is about the big- 
nefs of a thrufh: the head is large, and very much flatted 3 the eyes are large, and 
their iris is of a deep hazel: the beak is two inches and a half in length, nearly 
Rraight, ftrong, pointed at the end, and throughout of a black colour : the noftrils 
are oblong, narrow, deprefled, and of a brown colour within : the head is fomewhat 
elevated at the bafe of the beak, 
The whole upper part of the bird, the head, neck, back, rump, and wings are 
•brown, except that there runs a broad and elegant tranfverfe ftreak of fnow-white 
acrofs the neck : the brown has fome faint tinge of the reddifh in it, and is what we 
underftand by the term ferrugineous, when we exprefs a very bright colour by that 
word : the feathers are all amazingly bright and glofly 3 and the eye is as much daz¬ 
zled, with them, as with the intolerable blue of the European kind, which it is al¬ 
ways a pain to continue but a moment looking upon : the bread, the belly, the throat, 
and the under part of the wings and tail, are all of a fnow-white. 
The wings are moderately long, and the tail is very fhort, not exceeding three 
quarters of an inch in length 5 the long feathers of the wings are twenty-three in each, 
and they are of the fame brown with the body, but there are a few fpots of white 
diftinguifhed on fome of them, when the wing is expanded ; and thb tail alfo is 
brown, only with a few fpots of white on fome of the feathers. 
The legs are remarkably fhort and black 3 the feet are formed exa&ly, as in our 
king-fifher, both in regard to the fizes and connexion of the toes : the claws are 
black, long, and moderately fharp. 
This is a native of South America; we owe the firfl defcription of it to Marc- 
grave who gives it under it’s American name Jaquacati guacu ; the Portuguefe, from it’s 
frequenting ponds and rivers, and feeding on call it Papa piexe 5 Ray, Willughby, 
and others call it Ifpidse AfBnis, and add the Brafliian name of Marcgrave. We have* 
within thefe few years, had fome good fpecimens of it fent over into Europe, 
5 N 
Ifpida 
