The British Guiana Museum. 245 
golden feathers on the head and its bare crimson patch 
behind the eyes. The colour of this patch fades after 
death. This bird is a native of North-western Africa. 
Its voice is extremely .loud, and it uses it with effeft 
during its various antics. A fine specimen of the snowy 
owl is also to be seen ; and, above this, there are speci- 
mens of crows, those wonderfully clever and cunning 
perching birds, which, by many very high authorities, are 
considered to be, as well from their very large brain as 
from their mental characteristics, the highest type of the 
birds. Close by is seen a specimen of the curious group 
of the penguins, birds in which the wings are nearly 
absent, and the hind limbs placed nearly at the end of 
the body, causing the ere6l posture of the bird. Below 
this is that curious Australian kingfisher, the laughing 
jackass (Dacelo gigas) ) so called from its charafteristic 
cry. 
In the upper part of the case, by the window, the large 
crowned pigeon (Goura coronata) of New Guinea attrafts 
attention. Following this are seen many lovely specimens, 
and chief among them the Australian parrakeets, the 
African cuckoo, the blue jay of America, the Siberian 
jay, the Indian rollers (Coracias etc), and the magnificent 
species of Australian and Indian kingfishers — many of 
which are simply types of beauty. One type of king- 
fisher still retains the name Halcyon by which it was 
known to the Ancients, who described the seven days 
before and after the winter solstice as the Halcyon days, 
during which the bird would build its nest on a per- 
feftly calm sea. As it happens, the kingfisher does not 
carry out its part of the story, since it builds its simple 
nest, not floating on the sea, but in a tunnelled channel 
1 1 
