70 MEROPID^ MELITTOPHAGUS 



they are round ovals, pure glossy-white, and average 0-75 x 0'60 

 in measurement. 



Mr. Millar further informs me that this bird often builds in a 

 hole excavated in an ant-bear's earth, and that on one occasion 

 when digging out such a nest, he found fourteen eggs of the large 

 and very poisonous mamba snake [Dendrasins angusticcps) lying on 

 the top of the four Bee-Eater's eggs, all stuck together, the snake 

 having deposited its eggs upon those of the bird; and further that 

 on another occasion some years previously, his brother actually 

 found a six-foot mamba itself coiled up inside a Bee-Eater's nest. 

 The snake was found to contain a quantity of ripe eggs, and had 

 evidently entered the hole to deposit them there. 



411. Melittophagus bullockoides. White-fronted Bee-Eater. 



Merops huWookoiAe.^, Smith, S. Afr. Quart. Journ. (2) ii, p. 320 (1834) ; 

 id. III. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pi 9 (1838) ; Kirk, Ibis, 1864, p. 324; 

 Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 70 (1867); Bucldey, litis, 1874, p. 363 

 [Limpopo] ; Sharpe, ed. Laijard's B. S. Afr. pp. 99, 804, pi 4, fig. 1 

 (1875-84) ; Barratt, Ibis, 1876, p. 197 [Rustenburg] ; Ai/res, Ibis, 1879, 

 p. 289 [Rustenburg] ; Oates, Mataheleland, p. 301 (1882). 



Spheconax albifrons, Cab. d Heine, Mus. Hein. ii, p. 133 (1860). 



Melittophagus bullockoides, Ayres, Ibis, 1871, p. 150; Shelley, Ibis, 

 1882, p. 242 [Hanyani River] ; Holiib d Pelzebi, Orn. Siid-Afrikas, 

 p. 68 (1882) ; Dresser, Monogr. Merop. p. 129 (1885) ; Shelley, B. Afr. 

 i, p. Ill (1896) ; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, p. 96 [Zambesi]. 



Melittophagus albifrons. Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xvii, p. 53 (1892) ; id. Ibis, 

 1897, p. 496 [Zululand]; Woodward Bros. Natal Birds, p. 89 (1899) ; 

 Sharpe, Ibis, 190O, p. 115 []5eira distr.]. 



" Inlvota " of Zulus. 



Description. Male. — General colour above, green, the forehead 

 hoary-white with slight brown shaft marks, the crown tinged cobalt, 

 and the nape of the neck cinnamon, this latter being continued 

 round to the breast ; wings green, the primary quills tinged with 

 black at the tip, the secondaries with distinct black tips ; upper 

 tail-coverts ultramarine ; tail-feathers green like the back ; lores, 

 feathers round the eye and ear-coverts black, below which is a 

 narrow white band, meeting its fellow on the other side at the chin ; 

 throat bright carmine ; breast and under wing-coverts cinnamon, 

 shading through green into the bright ultramarine under tail-coverts. 

 Iris dark hazel ; bill black ; legs and feet greenish-black. 

 Length 9-0 ; wing 4*40 ; tail 3-75 ; culmen 1-35 ; tarsus 0-45. 



