a MEROPIDAE 389 
never much elongated; Jeropogon and Nyctiornis have the gular 
feathers broad and lengthened into a tuft. 
The Family contains five genera with some thirty-five species, 
varying in size from fourteen inches in Merops natalensis to 
about six and half in severai forms of Melittophagus. Nyctiornis 
amictus, of the Malay countries, is green, with lilac forehead and 
crown, scarlet cheeks and throat-tuft, and a few greenish-blue 
plumes at the base of the bill.  Meropogon forsteri of Celebes is 
also green, but has the crown, gular plumes and breast cobalt-blue, 
the occiput and nape brown, the abdomen dusky, and the lateral 
tail-feathers reddish-brown margined with green. J/erops apiaster 
has ruddy-brown head, neck, upper back, and broad alar bar, 
buff lower back, green wings and tail with black tips to the 
long median rectrices, light blue upper tail-coverts, pale green 
and white forehead, black ear-coverts, and bright yellow throat, 
divided from the greenish-blue under parts by a black band. It 
not unfrequently visits 
Britain—as the Blue- 
tailed Bee-eater, J/ 
philippinus, 1s said to 
have done once—and 
ranges from South 
Europe to Central Asia 
and North Africa, 
wintering in North- 
West India and South 
Africa. M. viridis, 
extending from Sene- 
gambia to North-East 
Africa and Cochin 
China, is yellowish- 
green, with a rufous 
tint on the hind-neck, 
much buff on the 
wing- and tail-quills, 
a black band washed 
with blue on the fore- 
neck, and some blue and black on the face. JL nubicus of the 
northern half of the Ethiopian Region has crimson-pink upper 
parts, blue-green head and throat, light blue rump and abdomen, 
Fia. 81.—Bee-eater. Jlerops apiaster. x #. 
