218 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
coverts. Chin, cheeks, and throat greenish-blue ; a black 
band across the fore-neck; lower parts green, the lower 
tail coverts and vent much paler. 
Bill black ; iris red ; legs and feet brown. 
Length 9°5 to 10°5; wing 3°65; tail, outer feathers 2°85, 
central feathers up to 5°25; tarsus °4; bill from gape 1-4. 
Distribution Common. throughout the drier parts of the 
low-country, especially in the sandy tracts round the coast 
in the north-west and south-east. It avoids the damp low- 
country, and seldom ascends higher than 1,000 feet. It occurs 
almost throughout India and Burma, and extends through 
Southern Persia to North-East Africa. 
Habits, &c.—Those of the family. May commonly be seen 
perching on a rail or low branch, from which it makes frequent 
short flights. The cry is a not unpleasant chirrup. I have 
often seen it hawking for insects over small sheets of water. 
The breeding season is from April to August. The nest hole 
is run almost horizontally into any little hummock of sandy 
soil, frequently along the side of a road. or path. 
Three to five eggs are laid in a small circular chamber at the 
end of a passage 2 to 4 feet in length. They are glossy white, 
almost spherical, and average *79 by *70. 
Merops PHILIPPINUS (Blanford, Vol. IIT., p. 3: 
Legge, p. 306). 
The Blue-tailed Bee-eater. 
Description.—Upper plumage, together with the wing 
coverts, brownish-green, darkest on the crown and nape, and 
shading on the lower back and tertiaries into the bright blue- 
green of the rump and tail ; the elongated central pair of tail 
feathers tipped with black. Primary and secondary quills 
pale cinnamon on the inner margin, the remaining portion 
bronze-green, brightest on the outer web, tips blackish. From 
the nostrils through the eye to the ear coverts runs a black 
streak, bordered above by a narrow pale blue line, and below 
by a broader line of the same colour; chin pale yellow, 
throat chestnut, shading on the breast into green, which 
again passes into pale blue on the vent and lower tail coverts ; 
wing lining light rufous-brown. 
