300 Mr. C. H. B. Grant on a Collection of 



Merops nubicus Gmelin was founded on the " Le Guepier 

 Houge a tete bleue^' of Buffon, Hist. Nat. vol. iv. 1779, 

 p. 506, and this in turn refers to the plate no. 649 in the 

 PL Enl. 1783 entitled ''Guepier de Nuhie/' which must 

 have been drawn in 1779, though apparently not published 

 till four years later. 



This plate shows a bird without elongated central tail- 

 feathers, no black through the eye or on the ear- coverts, 

 and the liead coloured very blue ; otherwise it agrees 

 with M. nubicus, and as no otiier Bee-eater can be easily 

 confounded with this species this plate can be safely 

 accepted for it. 



In the National Collection there is only one young example 

 from the Transvaal of Merops nubicoides Des Murs et Puch. 

 (Rev. Zool. 1846, p. 243: Port Natal), that has a blue 

 throat, which, besides showing i)ink new feathers coming 

 in by a moult, has this part of a much paler blue than in 

 the young of M. nubicus. 



Judging by the five youug specimens of 31. nvbicoides 

 before me, the normal colour of the throat is pinkish brown 

 in the first dress, but there appears to be a second immature 

 dress before the adult is reached, though much more 

 material is required before a definite conclusion can be 

 come to. 



Curiously enough, the blue-throated young bird appears 

 to be assuming the full adult dress direct and is not 

 assuming an intermediate immature stage, as the pinkish 

 brown-throated young appear to do. 



The range of the two birds seems to be as follows : — 



Merops nubicus nubicus. 



Nubia, Abyssinia, Somaliland, Sudan, Bahr el Ghazal, 

 Uganda, British East Africa, and Manda Island south to 

 Pangani River, German East Africa, west to Nigeria, Gold 

 Coast, Portuguese Guinea, Gambia, and Senegal. 



Merops nubicus nubicoides. 



Natal, Transvaal, Matabeleland, Portuguese East Africa, 

 Zambesi, north to Nyasaland and west to Damaraland. 



