MEEOPS. 



Ill 



Distribution. Common and resident almost throughout India, 

 Ceylon, and Burma. Wanting in the Himalayas, where this 

 species rarely occurs, even in the lower ranges, though there are 

 specimens from Kashmir and Murree in the Hume CoUectiou. 

 Absent also as a rule on the higher hills of the Peninsula, and m 

 some of the denser and damper forests. In Ceylon .¥. vvndts 

 is only found in the drier parts of the low country. In Tenasserim 

 it has not been observed south of Mergui, and it does not occur 

 in the Malay Peninsula nor in the Andamans or JNicobars, 

 though it is found in 8iam and Cochin China. West of' India 

 it extends through Baluchistan and Southern Persia to North- 

 eastern Africa. r -v r t r 



Habits 4-c One of the commonest and most familiar of Indian 

 birds ; a'resident in general, butlocaUy migratory in some places : 

 thus it is said to leave the island of Bombay from April till 

 September. It has the usual habits of Bee-eaters, but generaUy 

 prefers a lower perch than the larger species ; it hves on various 

 insects, usually captured in the air, and it has a pleasant whistlmg 

 note It breeds from the middle of March tiU the begmunig ot 

 June, and lays from 3 to 5 eggs at the end of a hole whidi it digs 

 to a depth of U to 5 feet, usuaUy in a bank or cliff. | he eggs 

 are spherical oVals, white and glossy, and measure about '/« 

 by -7. 



1027. Merops pMlippinus. The Blue-tailed Bee-eater. 



Merops pliilippinus, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. xiii ( f«'M, i, P- \f 

 (1767) ; Jerdon. Madr. Jour. L. S. xi, p. 228; Blyth, Cat. p. 52; 

 Horsf. &• M. Cat. p. 80 : Walden, Tr. Z. S. viii, p. 42 ; Hume, 

 S. F.in, p. 456; iv, pp. 36, 287; xi, p 42 ; id. Cat. no. 118; 

 Blyth & Wald. Birds Burm. p. 72 ; Hume ^ ^"''■^- f • ''^> 

 pp 67, 498; Ball, S. F. vii, p. 203; Crippsihid p. 258; Legye, 

 Birds Ceyl. p. 300; Doiy, S.F. viii, p. 370 ; Hf/« , -S. F ix p_49; 

 Bingham, ibid. p. 152 ; Butler; ibid. p. 381 ; Damson^ S. F. x. 

 p. 350 ; Gates, B. B. ii, p. 66; Dresser, Mon. Mer. P- oo pi xv ; 

 Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 94; Littledale, Jour. Bomb. NH.Soc. i, 

 pp. 31, 190 ; Oates in Hume's N. i^^ E. 2nd ed. in, p. 63; bharpe, 

 Cat. B. M. xvii, p. 71. _ r, » c t • 



Merops philippensis, Jerdon, B. I. i. p. 20/ ; Ball, S. F. i, p. o/ ; 

 Anderso7i, Yimnan Exp., Aves, \xo8h _ <,^/^Qoo^ 



Merops daudiui, Car. Beyne Anim Aouv. ed. i, p. 442 (18^9), 

 descr. nuUa ; Htime, S. F. ii, p. 102 ; in, p. 49. 

 Bara patrinya, H.; Komu passeri}ci,Te\. ; Huet-pasin-to, Burm. 



Coloration. Lores and a streak past the eye to the ear-coverts 

 black, bordered above by a narrow pale verditer-blue supercilium 

 and below by a broader blue line. Upper parts to rump, including 

 the wino--coverts, green with a rufous tmge passing into the 

 verditer-blue of the rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail ; tertiaries 

 also sometimes bluish ; middle pair of tail-feathers with elongate 

 black tips, and aU tail-feathers dark brown beneath : wing-teathers 

 more rufous green than the back, all except the tertiaries tipped 

 Mith black, the outer webs bluish or brighter greenish towards 



