The following is Wilson's description :—" Length seven inches, extent eleven inches ; head, neck, breast, upper part of the back and wing-coverts, a dark fawn colour, darkest on the back and brightest on the front ; head ornamented with a high, pointed, almost upright crest ; lino from the nostril over the eye to the hind head velvety black, bordered above with a fine line of white, and another line of white passes from the lower mandible ; chin black, gradually bright ening into fawn-colour, the feathers there lying extremely close ; bill black, upper mandible nearly triangular at the base, without bristles, abort, rounding at the point, where it is deeply notched ; the lower scolloped at the tip, and turning up ; tongue as in the rest of the genus, broad, thin, cartilaginous, and lacerated at the end ; belly yellow ; vent white ; wings deep slate, except the two secondaries next the body, whose exterior vanes are of a fawn-colour, and interior ones white, forming two whitish strips there, which are very con spicuous ; rump and tail-coverts pale light blue; tail the same, gradu ally deepening into black, and tipped for half no inch with rich yellow. Six or seven and sometimes the whole nine secondary feathers of the wings are ornamented at the tips with small red oblong appendages, resembling red sealing-wax ; these appear to be a prolongation of the shafts, and to be intended for preserving the ends and consequently the vanes of the quills from being broken and worn away by the almost continual fluttering of the bird among the thick branches of the cedar. The feathers of those birds which are without these appendages are uniformly found ragged on the edges, but smooth and perfect in those on whom the marks are full and numerous. These singular marks have been considered as belonging to the male alone, from tho circumstance perhaps of finding female birds without them. They are however common to both male and female. Six of the latter The species is found in the neighbourhood of NangasakL Temminck, to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of the bird, which is described and figured in his Planches Coloriees,' says that there is a specimen in the galleries of the museum of the Pays-Bas, and another in the collection of M. Blomhof, the resident at Japan ;
and he observes that the absence of the nostril-plumes furnishes a proof, also afforded in the genera Corrus and Garrula, in contradic tion to the opinion of those systematists who would separate the omnivorous birds with covered nostrils from those which have those organs smooth or naked, and divide them into distinct groups. He also considers the proper position of the genus to be near the Pirollcs (Kitts), and the Relies (Colaris of Culler, F•arystomw of Vieillot).
11031131"1.1DiE, a family of Insects of the order /Hiders, distinguished chiefly by having n long proboscis. The body is short and very hairy. Antennae moderate, four-jointed, the based joint long, second very short, third longest, the apical joint minute and tapering to a fine point. The legs are long and very slender. Wings hori. zontaL The species of this tribe are all remarkable for their great swiftness of flight ; two species of the genus Bombylitts are not uncommon in open parts of woods, frequenting sunny banks, where they may be seen, in the month of April, hovering over flowers, from which they sip the sweets by means of their long proboscis, which enables them to do this without settling on the flowers.
At one time they will be seen apparently quite motionless in the air—for their wings vibrate so rapidly that they cannot be discerned— a moment after they will make their appearance at a few yards' distance, having darted from one spot to the other with such rapidity that the eye cannot follow them. In their flight they emit a humming sound.
The two species here spoken of are B. major and B. mediae ; they are about one third of an inch long and of a brown colour ; the former has the anterior part of its wings clouded with an opaque brown colour, and the posterior part transparent—the latter has the wings adorned with numerous brown spots, and their anterior portion but slightly clouded.
Mr. Stephens enumerates seven species of this genus as indigenous to this country ; they are sometimes called Humble-Bee Flies. BOMBYX. [BomBYCIDX.]