ixi
when on the ground in its native deserts, the bird is with the utmost diffi-culty to be distinguished. About the eyes, the chin, and throat, the fea-thers are whitish, as are also the lower part of the belly, vent, thighs, underwing coverts, base of the prime, and tips of the secondary quills ; on thebelly and vent there is a slight shade of cream colour; and across theupper part of the breast is a kind of band of a much lighter shade than theback, narrowly dashed down the shafts with brown. The scapulars andupper wing coverts, are of a light dusky brown, edged and tipped with sandywhite; the two outer of the primary quills being dusky, and the third, for nearan inch from the base, margined on the outer web with whitish, and havinga large white spot on the inner web; the rest are white across both websat the base, and the last is deeply margined all round the tip, but princi-pally on the inner web, with brownish white : the two first quills are of amuch lighter dusky than the others; the secondaries are dark dusky, whiteat the base, margined outwardly and deeply tipped on both webs, so as toform two bars across that part of the wing when it is spread, which appearlike small spots when the wings are closed. The two middle feathers ofthe tail are of a very light dusky brown, deeply margined with the samesandy colour as the back ; the rest are of a dark dusky tinge, the exteriorweb of the outermost feather being almost white : the legs and feet are ofa very pale yellowish white, and the legs, particularly, partake very muchof a calcined look; the claws are of a pale horn colour, and the hindclaw is rather short, strong, and slightly bent, with the end whitish.’’
I have greatly to regret that occupations of a more serious nature pre-vented his Lordship from completing this list, but, as he has favoured mewith drawings ofNo. 55, which I conceive to belong to a new genus, I havegiven a plate of it, under the name ofErodia amphilensis, for the informa-tion of the reader. At the time we first saw this bird at Amphila, it struckus all as a very uncommon one, being perfectly unlike any other we hadseen before. With this 1 shall conclude my remarks respecting the birdsof Abyssinia.
The only insect which I have thought particularly w’orthy of notice is theAbyssinian locust, as I understand from one of our best informed naturalists