88 BLUE-HEADED, Oil RED BEE-EATER. 



lighter and more rosy beneath ; the blue of the 

 head is greenish and dull, shaded with black, but 

 on the tail-covers it is much brighter ; the scapular 

 quills dull olive, all the others being broadly tipt 

 with black, and the ends distinctly notched; ears 

 black ; under wing-covers and quills beneath, rufous. 

 Tail, even and notched, except the two middle 

 feathers, which are attenuated, and blackish towards 

 their terminal half. First quill slightly shorter than 

 the second. 



Total length, 13 inches; bill (front), l/^; wings, 

 5 T % ; tail beyond, 4f ; from the base, 7i > middle 

 feathers projecting 3^ beyond the others. 



LITTLE FORK-TAILED BEE-EATER. 



Merops erythropterus, LATHAM, 



Petit Guepier du Senegal, Bu/bn, PL Enl. 318. Le Guepier 

 minule, Le Vaill., pi. 17. Merops erythropterus, Latham* 

 General Synopsis^ ii. 681, pi. 31 ; General Hist. iv. p. 140. 

 pi. 70. Red- winged Bee-eater, Gen. Zool. i. 175, badly de- 

 scribed. 



IT is a pity that a scientific name, more appropriate 

 than that of erythropterus (red, or rufous winged), 

 was not originally imposed upon this pretty little 

 Bee-eater, the smallest species of its race yet dis- 

 covered. In accordance, however, with that rule of 

 nomenclature which forbids the alteration of an 



