The Hijlory ^ ANIMALS. 415 
while on the wing, as the fwallow does flies. It does not ufually fly Angle, bat in 
flocks, and makes a loud but not difagreeable noife, fomewhat like that of a man 
whittling. 
Ifpida dorfo cajlaneo^ pe&ore fiavefcente . 
The brown-backed Ifpida , with a yellow breafl . 
This, though greatly inferior to the former fpecies in colouring, is yet a beautiful 
bird } the bignefs is about that of our king-flflier : the head is large, in proportion to 
the body, and is deprefled on the crown: the eyes are large, and their iris is of a 
bright red : the beak is an inch and a quarter long, and is moderately robuft and thick: 
the two chaps, of which it is formed, are nearly of the fame length, and the whole is 
bent a little toward the form of a reaper’s fickle, but in a lefs degree : it is black 
throughout, and the noftrils which are fituated toward it’s bale are oblong : the mouth 
opens to a great width, and the tongue is fhort and ftnall. 
The head is of a dufky, but not difagreeable, yellow: the back is throughout of a 
beautiful chefnut-brown, but the rump is paler, and greeniili or yellowilh: the breafl, 
belly, and throat are of a pale yellow 5 the bread: is fomewhat deeper than the belly, 
and toward the fides, and about the thighs, the colour is almoft whitifh : but the great 
Angularity and ftriking charader of the bird is, a long black flreak on the middle of 
the head; this has it’s origin at the bafe of the beak, and is continued quite along the 
head, to the very beginning of the neck. 
The wings are long, and they are variegated in an extreamly elegant manner ; the 
long feathers are fome of them all over blue, fome all over yellow3 fome part blue, 
and part yellow, and fome entirely black, only tipped with a bright fcarlet at the ex¬ 
tremities ; it is not eafy, indeed, to conceive a greater variation of colouring, than there 
is in the wing of this bird, and all the colours are high and glowing: the tail is mo¬ 
derately long, and is yellow, but grden for a confiderable fpace at the end, fo that at 
flrft fight it appears half green and half yellow 3 the legs are very fhort and yellow : 
the claws long and black. 
This is a native of Germany, but it is not known in England. It is called by fome 
authors Hirundo Marina, the Sea-fwallow, but it is truly of the king-fifher-kind, 
and is more like the merops than any other fpecies. Aldrovand has therefore properly 
called it Merops alter five Meropi Congener. It feeds on in feds. 
Ifpida virefcens capite criflato , cauda longifjima . 
The green Ifpida , with a crefled head, and 
very long tail . 
%% t datt'm 
©uaiiiumbt. 
This is perhaps the moft elegant bird of this whole clafs, notwithflanding that there 
are fo many Angularly beautiful ones of it: it is indeed fo particular in it’s figure as well 
as colouring, that, if fpecimens of it had not been fent over into Europe, we fhould 
hardly credit the relations of thofe who wrote upon the fpot, that there was inch a 
bird. 
It is about equal in fize to our thrufh: the head is large, and is ornamented with a 
moft elegant creft 5 the beak is an inch long, tolerably robufl and thick, a little 
hooked, and fharp at the point: the noftrils are oblong 3 the eyes are large and beau¬ 
tiful j their iris is of a gold yellow, and the pupil black. 
# The head is ornamented with a creft of ered feathers, of the moft lively blue ima¬ 
ginable ; they are indeed exadly of the colour of the turquoife-ftone3 and in the 
midft of this creft is a round black fpot, of the bignefs of a fiver three-pence ; there 
are alfo fome clack feathers and fome blue ones, which form an elegant, variegated 
line under the eyes: the neck, back wings, and tail, that is, the whole upper part of 
the 
