COLONEL FLEMING'S JOURNAL, 1779-1780



body and two feet or three in diameter, which I did not
observe before, the bark something like a Cheery tree the
wood when cut a crimson red and cald by some Mahogany I
the grains of the wood resemble the Mahogany some thing
but vastly coarser, when dry the red colour vanishes and
it appears a glistening white, the leaf I do not know but
am informed it bears a pod a foot long containing beans of
a flat round form in a sweet acrimonious visid Juice.2 re-

wing and tail a shining black, it had nine stiff and strong feathers
in the tail forked at the end, the middle one being six inches long
from where the feathers begin the whole length being 71 inches
the others on each side shortened in length, its wings ten Inches
long from the shoulder to the tip, i8 long feathers in the wing,
the two first and longest black the 3rd tipd with white and each
succeeding one more and more till the next to the back are white,
both above and below, the front and fore part of the Crown
black, from the junction of the upper and lower bill white feathers
on each side, leaving a triangle of black feathers from the Eyes
and back part of the Crown which is deep red, the white feathers
run backwards as far as the white on the wings intermixed with
black so that the bird from the head so far appears speckled,
the red part of the crown appears triangular, its legs was an inch
and a half long with four toes set forward and back two each way,
armed with strong crooked claws, the two outer ones the longest
and four inches in length the bill white and bony verry strong and
firm at the point shaped like a wedge each t of an inch broad and
from that a ridge runs both in the upper and lower so that each
forms a triangle an inch and a quarter broad at the Junction of
the upper and lower bills, which is three inches in length, the
tongue is six inches in length. The Iris when dead of a bright
Yellow so far it differs from any of the species I have seen, the
mechanism of its parts being as usual in birds of this kind, it
weighed upwards of i lb. - Note in MS.
  1 Coffee tree - Gymnocladus Canadensis. - Note in MS.
  2 This tree is a species of larch it grows in Spain and on the
Barbary side near Siteran cald in Spain Algerzalea, Garosera,
Carrobe, or Locust tree. The trunk from i to 2 feet diameter,
the leaves a dark green, ten on a twigg, five on each side the
fruit in shape of kidney beans one inch broad and nine or ten
inches long they issue in clusters from the branches and body
of the tree in a singular manner, the pods thick, mealy and of a
sweet taste when dry they are given to horses and Cattle as
providender. The Alcarobe in Africa, the pod resembles the
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