110 MEROPID^E. 



The habits of all the Bee-eaters are similar. All feed on 

 insects, and the larger species very much on bees and wasps, which 

 they capture in the air, seize across the body, and crush, either 

 with their mandibles or by beating the insect against their perch, 

 before swallowing. They select a perch with a good look-out, 

 often a dead branch at the top of a tree or bush, and they are 

 fond of sitting on telegraph-wires. They generally, after sallying 

 forth and hunting, return to the same perch. They have a 

 pleasant whistling note : they generally live in colonies and make 

 long nest-holes, two or three inches in diameter and often several 

 feet deep, in the bank of a river, on a hill-side, or sometimes on 

 level ground ; at the bottom of this hole they hollow out a 

 chamber, in which their eggs, which are white, glossy, and very 

 spherical ovals, are laid, usually without any lining. 

 



1026. Merops viridis. The Common Indian Bee-eater. 

 Merops viridis, Linn. Syst. Rat. i, p. 182 (1766) ; Blylh, Cat. p. 53 ; 



Horsf. $ M. Cat. p. 84 ; Jerdon, B. I. \, p. 205 ; Stoiiczka, 



J. A. 8. B. xxxvii, p. 19; Hume, S. F. i, p. 167 ; iii, p. 49; 



xi, p. 42 ; id. Cat. no. 117 ; Adam, S. F. i, p. 371 ; Bh/th $ Wald. 



Birds Burm. p. 73 ; Morgan, Ibis, 1875, p. 314 ; Hume fy Dav. 



S. F. vi, pp. 67, 498; Zeyge, Birds Ceyl. p. 309; Scully, S. F. 



viii, p. 237; Damson, S. F. x, p. 350; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 65; 



id. in Humes N. 8f E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 60 ; Barnes, Birds Bomb. 



p. 93; Dresser, Mon. Mer. p. 31, pi. ix ; Sharye, Cat. B. M. 



xvii, p. 78. 

 Merops ferrugeiceps and M. torquatus, Hodgs. Gray's Zool. Misc. 



p. 82 (1844), descr. nulla. 

 Merops indicus, Jerdon, Madr. Jour. L. S. xi, p. 227. 



Patringa, Harridl, H. ; Bdnspati in Bengal ; Tailingi, Veda Hdgliu, 

 Mahr. ; Chinna passeriki, Tel. ; Kurumenne Kurulla, Cin^. ; Kattalan 

 Kuruvi, Tamil, Ceylon ; Monayyi, Arrakan ; Hnet-pa sin-to, Burm. 

 Several of these terms are also used for other species of Merops. 



Coloration. Upper parts, including wing-coverts and tertiaries, 

 bright green, sometimes more or less tinged with ferruginous 

 or golden on the crown, nape, and upper back, tertiaries and 

 rump a little bluer ; lores and a band under the eye to the ear- 

 coverts black, primary and secondary quills pale rufous, greenish 

 on the outer webs, tipped blackish ; tail duller green above, dark 

 brown below, tips of the elongate middle feathers blackish ; lower 

 parts green ; a black gorget ; chin and cheeks, and sometimes the 

 throat, bluish or even verditer-blue ; lower abdomen and lower 

 coverts also sometimes bluish. 



Bill black ; irides blood-red ; feet dark plumbeous (Jerdon) . 



Length about 9 ; tail 4-5-5, outer rectrices 2'9 ; wing 3-6 

 tarsus '4 ; bill from gape 1'4. 



Specimens with a ferruginous head are more common to the 

 eastward, especially in Burma ; birds from the North-west 

 Provinces show the blue throat best, but the intensity of this 

 colour appears to increase as the plumage gets worn. Both of 

 the varieties are occasionally found in Southern India. 



