MEROPS. 113 



ear-coverts, bordered below by white, passing down into blue and 

 then into green on the cheeks; upper parts and wings green, 

 bluer on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; quills greenish rufous, 

 tipped blackish; tail-feathers also rufescent green, the long 

 median pair dusky at the tips ; chin yellow, throat chestnut, rest 

 of lower parts green like the back ; wing-lining brownish rufous. 



Bill black ; iris red ; legs and feet fleshy (C. T. Bingham). 



Length about 12 ; tail 5 to 6, to end of outer rectrices 3*7 ; 

 wing 6; tarsus -55; bill from gape 1*75. 



Distribution. Migratory, wintering in Africa, and passing the 

 summer in Western and Central Asia. A summer visitant to North- 

 western India, breeding in parts of. Sind, Rajputana, the Punjab, 

 and Afghanistan, and ranging occasionally during migration as far 

 as Gilgit, Aligarh and Mainpuri in the N.W. Provinces, Mhow, 

 Khandesh, and even Pandharpur in the Bombay Deccan, where 

 Mr. Davidson obtained a young specimen in October. This 

 species has not, so far as I know, been observed in Kashmir 

 proper. 



Habits, $'c. Similar to those of other Bee-eaters. This species 

 breeds near Delhi, as observed by Bingham, from the middle of 

 May to the middle of July, and lays 3 to 5 eggs in the usual 

 nest-hole. The eggs measure on an average -95 by *81. 



1029. Merops apiaster. The European Bee-eater. 



Merops apiaster, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 182 (1766); Blyth, Cat. 

 p. 52 ; Adams, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 474 ; Jerdon, B. I. i, p. 210 ; id. 

 Ibis, 1872, p. 3 ; Murray, S. F. vii, p. 113 ; Hume, Cat. no. 121 ; 

 Wardl. -Ramsay, Ibis, 1880, p. 49; Barnes, S. F. ix, pp. 215, 

 453 ; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 48 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 95 ; St. 

 John, Ibis, 1889, p. 157 ; Gates in Hume's N. fy E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 66 ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xvii, p. 63. 



Coloration. Forehead white, followed by an indistinct line of 

 verditer-blue passing into green, that is continued on each side as 

 a superciliuin ; a black line including the lores and ear-coverts 

 and passing under the eye ; crown, hind neck, and upper back 

 chestnut, darkest on the head and passing into pale yellowish 

 brown, weathering in worn plumage to buff on the lower back 

 and rump, paler still on the scapulars; secondary -coverts and 

 quills chestnut ; primary-coverts and primary and tertiary quills 

 bluish green, all quills except the tertiaries tipped black ; upper 

 tail-coverts bluish green ; tail-feathers bronze-green above, the 

 slightly elongate median pair tipped black, all blackish beneath ; 

 chin and throat rich yellow, followed by a black gorget ; breast, 

 abdomen, and under tail-coverts greenish blue, paler behind ; wing- 

 lining buff. 



Bill black ; iris red ; legs and feet brown. 



Length about 10-5 ; tail 4 to 5, outer rectrices 3-5 ; wing 5-75 ; 

 tarsus -55 ; bill from gape 1'7. 



Distribution. A migratory bird, wintering in Africa, and perhaps 

 in Southern Arabia, and breeding in summer in Southern Europe 



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