IN WESTERN LIBERIA. 167 



Collected at Bavia (St. Paul) and Buluma (Fisherman 

 Lake). — Very common wherever open country exists, in 

 farms , grassy plains , when interrupted by groves , even 

 near the villages of the natives. A very dull bird, when 

 seated for hours lonely on an isolated shrub or small tree, 

 from where it occasionally darts after an approaching in- 

 sect, but very lively and noicy, especially short before 

 sunset , when crowded together in large swarms and wheel- 

 ing about in the air. 



Iris red , bill black , feet greenish flesh-color. 



Merops erythr opterus. 



Merops erythropterus , Gm. Syst. Nat. I , p. 464. 



Merops erythropterus and M. coUaris , Hartl. Orn. W. Afr. 

 p. 40. 



Merops erythropterus, Schl. Mus. P.-B., Merops, p. 10. 



Hab. West Africa, from Senegambia to Damara Landj 

 East A.frica. 



Collected near Buluma. 



The Red-winged Bee-eater is by far not as common as 

 the foregoing species , living rather in pairs or small cou- 

 ples of pairs than in large flocks together. It lives gene- 

 rally in farms, keeping tolerably close to the ground and 

 picking up ants and other running (not flying) insects. 



Iris red, bill black, feet dark brown. 



Merops gularis. 



Merops gularis, Shaw , Nat. Miscell. pi. 337 ; — Hartl. Orn. 

 W. Afr. p. 42; — Schl. Mus. P.-B., Merops, p. 12. 



Hab. W. Africa, from Sierra Leone to Angola. 



A series collected at Monrovia , near the Fisherman Lake 

 and along the Marfa River. 



This beautiful Bee-eater is found in pairs or small flocks 

 wherever open country exists, but was never met with in 

 the Interior, that is about more than 10 to 15 miles from 



Notes from the Leyden üMuseum, Vol. "VII. 



