78 BLUE -CHEEKED BEE-EATER. 



nopsis of Birds, itself a compilation, has given rise 

 to much of this confusion, from having been taken 

 as the text-book for other compilations ; so that if 

 an ornithologist is desirous of determining those 

 species described by Linnaeus, his only prospect of 

 success lies in consulting the editions of the Systema 

 Natura, and the authorities or synonymes quoted by 

 the illustrious author. We have been more than 

 usually anxious to do this in respect to the species 

 before us, by consulting the various descriptions of 

 Latham, Vieillot, Shaw, &c. &c., as well as the 

 original accounts by Buffon, Brisson, and Edwards. 

 To give all the details of this examination would be 

 tedious; it results, however, that this bird is not 

 the Merops superciliosus of Linnseus, who depends 

 entirely upon Brisson for that species. Brisson's 

 description is of a bird from Madagascar, possessing 

 many points of resemblance to this, but distin- 

 guished by having the " upper part of the head of a 

 very obscure green, and changing, according to the 

 direction of the light, to a brilliant marron or chest- 

 nut (un marron Irillant)* ;" whereas the head of 

 our species is of the same bright green as the rest of 

 the back. In Brisson's bird the band over and 

 under the eye is " d'un blanc mele d'une legerere 

 teinte de verd" but in this the colour is bright tour- 

 quoise-blue, green only where it blends into the 

 adjoining colours. It is not necessary, in this place, 

 to determine what are the other supposed varieties 

 of superciliosus, a name which seems to comprise 

 * Brisson. Orn. iv. p. 547. 



