The Count de Buffon has published two figures of this bird, one from a specimen I gave him from Abyssinia[82], the other from one stuffed, which he received from Senegal[83], so that we know the bird possesses the whole breadth of Africa nearly on a parallel. I may be allowed to say, that, when I gave him mine, I did not expect he would so far have anticipated my publication as to have exhibited it as a part of the king’s cabinet till he had heard my idea of it, and what further I could relate of its history more than he had learned from seeing the feathers of it only. When I saw the draught, it put me in mind of the witty poem of Martial: A man had stole some of his verses, but read them so ill, that the poet could not understand them well enough to know they were his own-- _Sed male dum recitas incipit esse tuum._ The bird is so ill-designed that it may pass for a different species. It is too short in the body; too thick; its neck too short and thick; its legs, the pupil and iris of the eye, of a Wrong colour; its tail affectedly spread. These are the consequences of drawing from stuffed subjects. The brown upon the back is too dark, the light-blue too pale, too much white upon the side of its head. These are the consequences of having a bad painter; and the reader, by comparing my figure with those drawn by Martinet in Buffon, may easily perceive how very little chance he has to form a true idea of any of these birds, if the difference is as great between his other drawings and the original, as between my drawing and his. De Seve would have given it a juster picture. WAALIA. This pigeon, called Waalia, frequents the low parts of Abyssinia, where it perches upon the highest trees, and sits quietly in the shade during the heat of the day, so that it is difficult to discover it, unless it has been seen to alight. They likewise fly extremely high, in great flocks, and for the most part affect a species of the beech-tree, upon the mast or fruit of which they seem chiefly to live for food. They are rarely seen in the mountainous part of the country unless in their passage, for in the beginning of the rainy season, in the Kolla, they emigrate to the south and S. W. In this direction they are seen flying for days together. It is supposed the high country, even in the fair season, is too cold for them; and their seeking another habitation towards the Atlantic Ocean, where it is warm, and where the rains do not fall so copiously in that season as they do in the Kolla in Abyssinia, makes this conjecture still more probable. [Illustration: _Waalia_ _London Publish’d Dec.^r 1.^{st} 1789. by G. Robinson & Co._]