were perfectly clean, as was the case also with regard to a still larger one, fourteen feet long, which I had
an opportunity of examining ; nor could I discover any of the leeches and other parasites said to exist there.”

Mr. Cavendish Taylor says, “I did not see this pretty species” (the Pluvianus Agyptius) “below Cairo ;
but above I found it everywhere numerous. This is the bird which enjoys the credit of being the Trochilos
of Herodotus, and as a matter of fact, I may state that I seldom saw a Crocodile on land without seeing
a Pluvianus Agyptius near him.”—‘ Ibis,’ 1859, p- 02.

The Rey. H. B. Tristram informs us that this bird was shot by the Rev. Ridley H. Herschell in the
valley of the Jordan, a circumstance which entitles the species to a place in the ‘ Birds of Asia.’

Crown of the head, lores, stripe beneath and behind the eye, down the sides of the neck, back of the
neck, upper part of the back, lengthened feathers down the centre of the back, and a narrow gorget
extending from the sides of the neck across the lower part of the breast steely black ; a narrow stripe over
each eye, from the nostrils to the occiput, white; primaries black and white, the latter hue occupying the
centre of the feathers ; secondaries white, crossed by a broad band of black near the tip, beyond which is
a narrow line of white; remainder of wings, scapularies, and back grey, separated from the black of the
upper part of the back by a broad line of white ; tail grey, tipped with white, the two colours separated on
the lateral feathers by a narrow bar of black; throat and under surface white, washed with buff, which
gradually increases in depth until it becomes deep sandy buff on the vent and under tail-coverts ; irides
dark brown; legs and feet pale blue.

The Plate represents the bird of the natural size, with several reduced figures around and in the mouth
of a Crocodile.