442 



MEROPIDJi:. 



black ; secondaries chestnut, passing into bluish-green and 

 broadly tipped with black ; tertials greenish-blue ; upper 

 tail-coverts bluish-green ; tail-quills duck-green, the middle 

 pair elongated about an inch beyond the others, and narrowing 

 after they are passed ; chin and throat rich safifron-yellow, 

 bounded below by a bar of bluish-black ; breast, belly and 

 lower tail-coverts, verdigris-green, tipped with blue ; lower 

 wing-coverts fawn-colour ; inner surface of primaries and 

 rectrices greyish-brown, that of the secondaries buff, broadly 

 tipped with greyish-black : legs, toes and claws reddish- 

 brown. 



The whole length to the tip of the middle rectrices is 

 eleven inches ; from the carpal joint to the tip of the wing, 

 five inches and three-quarters. 



Females are not so brightly coloured as males, the yellow 

 on the throat is paler, and the green tinged with red. 



The bird here figured, supposed to have been in its second 

 year, had the chestnut much paler and not extending below 

 the neck, while the lower part of the back was greenish-yellow. 



A young bird of the year, in the Author's collection, had 

 the top of the head green, with a small patch of reddish- 

 brown above each eye, no chestnut on the back, nor dark 

 band bounding the throat ; the rectrices even at the tip. 



The vignette represents the sternum of this species.* 



* Mr. Hancock (B. Northumb. &c. p. 28) has recorded the occurrence in this 

 country of the "Blue-tailed Bee-eater," Merops 2^Jtili2Jpe7isis, P. L. S. Miiller, 

 M. philippinus, Boddaert, an example of which "was shot near the Snook, 

 Seaton Carew, in August, 1862." No other instance of the appearance in 

 Europe of this eastern species is known. 



