MEROPID^ MEROPS 63 



■wing-coverts and inner lining of the quills pale chestnut, rest of 

 the quills and under side of the tail-feathers dusky. 



Iris dark hazel ; bill black ; legs and feet ashy-brown. 



Length to the outer tail-feathers lO'O ; wing 5-9 ; tail 4-0 ; to 

 end of central feathers 80 ; culmen 1-55 ; tarsus 0*5. 



The female resembles the male ; a young male in the South 

 African Museum is duller coloured in every way, the crown is blue, 

 and the crimson of the back and lower surface is replaced by a dull 

 cinnamon-brown ; the central tail-feathers are not elongated. 



Distribution. — The Carmine-throated Bee-Eater was first de- 

 scribed by Desmurs and Pucheran from specimens obtained by 

 Delagorgue, apparently on the northern slopes of the Magaliesberg 

 in what is now the Eustenburg district of the Transvaal. It is 

 found along the valley of the Limpopo to the low country of the 

 eastern Transvaal, Mashonaland and Portuguese east Africa, and 

 along the valley of the Zambesi as far as the Okavango river. 

 Beyond the Zambesi it has been met with only in Nyasaland, Afigola, 

 and the Upper Congo Districts. It is stated by Layard to have 

 been once obtained by Verreaax at Genandendal, in the Caledon 

 district of the Colony, and one specimen is noted in the British 

 Museum Catalogue, as from Port Natal {i.e., Durban) ; otherwise 

 it is not known south of Eustenburg. 



The following are recorded localities : Transvaal — Eustenburg, 

 January (Ayres), Lydenburg district, January, February, May 

 (Francis) ; Bechuanaland — Tebra Country, February (Eriksson in 

 S. A. Mus.) ; Ehodesia — Daka river, and Geruah near Victoria 

 Falls, January (Gates), Umfuli river, September (Ayres), Odzi 

 river, Manicaland, November (Marshall) ; German south - west 

 Africa — Okavango river (Andersson) ; Portuguese east Africa — In- 

 hambane (Francis in S. A. Mus.), Senna to the Kufue on the 

 Zambesi river (Alexander). 



Habits. — This, which is perhaps the most beautiful bird in 

 South Africa, is never found except along the rivers of the low country. 

 It is apparently a migrant within our limits, arriving in about 

 October and November, and leaving again in March, and breeding 

 during its stay here. It generally perches on the outer branches 

 of high trees and is a persistent high flyer. Marshall and Francis 

 both state that the easiest way to get it down within reach is to 

 set on fire a patch of grass. This at once attracts the Bee-Eaters 

 which descend in order to snap up the insects disturbed by the 

 flames. Capt. Alexander gives a good account of this bird which 



