ALCEDINID^ 71 



The female resembles the male, the young are duller coloured 

 throughout, especially on the tail-coverts and throat. 



Distribution. — The White-fronted Bee-Eater was first discovered 

 by Sir A. Smith, "north of 25° S. lat.," probably on the upper 

 waters of the Limpopo ; thence it is spread over the greater part 

 of the low country of the Transvaal and Zululand to Natal where 

 it is rare, and in the other direction to Mashonaland and the 

 Zambesi ; beyond our limits it has been obtained in Angola, Nyasa- 

 land, and German and British east Africa as far north as Lake 

 Naivasha. 



South African localities are : Natal — Isipingo near Durban, 

 Howick near Maritzburg, Ulundi and the Black Umvolosi river 

 in Zululand (Woodward) ; Transvaal — Lydenburg dist. (Francis, 

 S. A. Mus,), Potchefstroom and Eustenburg (Barratt) ; Ehodesia 

 — Hanyani river (Ayres) ; Portuguese east Africa — Beira dist. 

 (Cavendish), Zambesi river (Kirk and Alexander). 



Habits. — The White-fronted Bee-Eater appears to resemble the 

 preceding species, the Little Bee-Eater, in its habits ; it is never 

 seen very far from water or streams, where it is found solitary or 

 in pairs, perched on a twig on the look out for insects ; its note is 

 said to be harsh and short. In the evening the birds congregate 

 to roost on ledges formed along the perpendicular sand banks 

 which are often found covered with their castings of beetle wings. 

 Alexander also found them roosting in companies on the tops of 

 high leafless trees along the Zambesi. They make deep nest-holes 

 in the tand banks where they roost, but I have not met with any 

 more exact description of their breeding habits. This Bee-Eater 

 like the preceding, appears to be a resident in the localities where 

 it is found. 



Family III. ALCEDINID^. 



Bill long, stout and pointed, the culmen slightly ridged or 

 flattened ; tarsi and toes feeble ; arrangement of toes syndactyle, 

 the fourth toe united to the third for the greater part of its length, 

 the second united to the third for its basal third, the hallux or first 

 toe alone turned backwards (see fig. 26, p. 73). Primaries eleven, 

 the first minute; tail-feathers twelve in all South African forms; 

 spinal feather-tract well defined on the neck and not forked on 

 the back ; oil gland tufted ; no cteca. 



