100 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
writes :—“ These Bee-eaters I have usually found in flights on the 
banks of rivers, generally alighting on the tops of bushes and trees, 
or on any bare exposed twig’: their notes are harsh and short.” The 
same gentleman also procured specimens on the Monocusi River in 
Natal. According to Dr. Kirk it was met with in the Zambesi 
district, ‘‘ solitary in habits, frequenting the banks of streams.” It 
never seems to have occurred to Mr. Andersson in Damara Land, 
but Senor Anchieta fell in with the species on the River Cunene and 
also at Huilla in Mossamedes. , 
This species is of medium size, the chief characters being its 
straw-coloured nape and breast, the latter contrasting strongly with 
the deep blue under tail-coverts : it is also remarkable for its white 
chin and broad white moustache. Total length, 8°5 inches; culmen, — 
1-4; wing, 4°6; tail, 4-0; tarsus, 0°5. | 
96. Merrors PpusILLUs. Little Bee-eater. 
Merops erythropterus, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 70. 
Although not yet recorded from within the boundaries of the 
Cape Colony, the present bird is by no means rare in collections 
from Natal and the Transvaal. Respecting its occurrence in the 
former province Mr. Ayres writes :— These Bee-eaters are particu- 
larly fond of frequenting reedy marshes and swamps, and are to be | 
found here in certain localities all the year round. ‘They are by no 
meaus so plentiful as the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, which is only here 
during the summer months. It is seldom that more than five or six 
are seen together, and generally not more than two. When feeding, 
their flight is not so prolonged as that of M. supercviliosus, neither is 
their note so loud and harsh.” Dr. Exton procured it at Kanye, in 
the Matabili country, and generally throughout Zulu Land during 
the winter months. “It flies low,” he writes to us, “and perches 
on twigs near the ground, from whence it launches after passing in- 
sects.” Mr. Ayres says that it is pretty common along the Limpopo, 
and Mr. T. E. Buckley noticed it on the same river, as wellas on _ 
the Samouqui River in the Matabili country. He says that they were 
“plentiful in comparatively open country in the north of the Trans- 
yaal.’ Dr. Kirk, who speaks of this species as M. variegatus, — 
mentions it as widely distributed in the Zambesi country in the 
vicinity of water. 
