90 LITTLE FORK- TAILED BEE-EATER. 



feathers; the chin, and half of the throat, is of a 

 clear and full yellow, having a very narrow edging, in 

 the middle of the throat only, of delicate greenish- 

 blue ; this edging is followed by a transverse black 

 spot of the deepest black, which is also confined to 

 the middle of the throat, and is surrounded by, or 

 rather placed in, the middle of a large patch of rich 

 chestnut, which goes across the breast from side to 

 side, and then blends into the light buff- coloured 

 green of the body and belly; the primary and 

 secondary quills are ferruginous, slightly shaded 

 with green, with broad black ends, but the extreme 

 tips of the secondaries are pale and whitish. The 

 lateral feathers of the tail are coloured in the same 

 way, and all these quills, both of the tail and the 

 wings, have the generic character of being deeply 

 emarginate. It must be observed, however, that 

 this is evidently an aberrant species, for the tail is not 

 only slightly forked, but in some degree lyrate, the 

 external feathers inclining outwards. The first quill, 

 "which in Merops apiaster is so short and spurious 

 as only to be one-fifth the length of the second, is, 

 in this bird, half as long as the next, while the 

 quills themselves do not exceed the length of the 

 scapulars and tertials. These differences, however 

 slight, plainly indicate a tendency to the rasorial 

 structure, as we find it represented in the drongo- 

 shrikes and other lyre-tailed birds. 



Total length, 6 inches ; bill, from the front, T % ~, 

 from the rictus, 1 T %; wings, 3; tail beyond, 1^; 

 from the base, 2^. 



