VI MEROPIDAE 387 
parts, the crest being green with black transverse stripes, and 
the bill black. Alcedo ispida of Britain, the whole of Europe, 
and the greater part of Asia, has greenish-blue upper parts, 
brighter blue head and tail, chestnut under parts and broad eye- 
streak, white throat and patches at the side of the neck, and 
black bill, often orange at the base. A. beryllina of Java and 
Lombok differs in being entirely greenish-blue above, and white 
with a blue chest-band below. Ceryle is the sole genus found 
in the New World, though it occurs also in South-East Europe, 
most of Asia and Africa; C. alcyon, the Belted Kingfisher, alone 
reaches the Northern United States and Canada. The half dozen 
large crested species are generally black and white, relieved by 
chestnut or grey, but C. amazona and its nearest allies are dull 
ereen above. 
Pelargopsis gurial of India and Assam, one of the “Stork- 
billed Kingfishers,’ has a brown head, yellowish-fawn collar and 
under parts, dull green mantle and tail, greenish-blue lower back, 
and red beak. 
Fam. IV. Meropidae.—The Bee-eaters are extremely brillant 
and graceful birds, which range over the temperate and tropical 
portions of the Old World, being especially plentiful in the 
Ethiopian Region, and somewhat less so in the Indian. The 
Palaearctic countries possess only four species, but Celebes alone 
has three, one of which (Merops ornatus) extends through the 
Moluccas to Papuasia and Australia. 
The bill is long and gradually curved, with a culminar ridge 
and deflected mandible, the maxilla being grooved and more 
arched in WNyctiornis. The short, stout metatarsus, which is 
weaker in JJerops, is scutellated anteriorly and reticulated pos- 
teriorly ; the abbreviated toes—rather longer in Wyctiornis— 
have slender curved claws, and are united in the case of the 
third and fourth to the last joint, in the second and third to a 
less extent. The usually short and rounded wings are long and 
pointed in Merops and Dicrocercus ; the primaries number eleven, 
or ten in WNyctiornis, and the secondaries twelve or thirteen. 
The tail of twelve rectrices is even in Melittophagus and Nye- 
tiornis, deeply forked in Dicrocercus, and square with two 
elongated and tapering median feathers in Merops and Meropogon. 
The fureula is U-shaped, the tongue is lanceolate, the nostrils 
are concealed by dense feathers in Nyctiornis and Meropagon ; 
