NYCTIOBNIS. 115- 



breast green, passing into bluish green on the abdomen and lower 

 tail-coverts. 



Bill black ; iris crimson ; legs dusky black (Oates). 



Length 8*5 ; tail 4 ; wing 4-2 ; tarsus *43 ; bill from gape 1*7. 



After going over the original descriptions, I believe the true 

 Merops quinticolor to be the Javan species. M. leschenaulti is 

 not recognizable. Vieillot appears merely to have copied 

 Levaillant's descriptions and localities, and the latter are notori- 

 ously worthless. 



Distribution. A resident, locally distributed throughout Ceylon 

 and in the hill-forests near the Malabar coast as far north as 

 Belgaum, ascending the Nilgiris to about 5000 feet. Elsewhere 

 in the Peninsula this bird is only known to occur in the great 

 forest-region south-east of Bengal, and there it is very rare ; but 

 Mr. Ball obtained a specimen in Sarguja and I shot one on the 

 Grodavari below Sironcha. It ranges throughout the Lower 

 Himalayas as far west as Dehra Dun, and east of the Bay of 

 Bengal from Assam to the Malay Peninsula, Siam, and Cochin 

 China, occurring locally throughout Burma and in the Andaman 

 Islands. 



Habits, <$fc. Similar to those of Merops. This bird is usuaUy 

 seen perched on a tree, very often on a dead branch, or catching 

 insects on the wing. It chiefly prefers forests or well-wooded 

 country near streams. It breeds about March and April, 

 generally in colonies, in holes of considerable depth, and lays 

 usually 5 or 6 glossy white eggs in a chamber at the end of the 

 hole. The eggs measure about '87 by *76. 



Genus NYCTIORNIS, Swains., 1831. 



Larger than Merops; bill stronger and deeper; ridge of the 

 culmen flattened ; a hoUow on each side of the ridge ; nostrils 

 covered by plumes. Wing rounded ; first quill about two-thirds 

 of the second, third or fourth longest ; tail rather long, even. 

 Feathers of throat and breast elongate and richly coloured. 



Only two species are known, both are found within our area. 



Key to the Species. 



Middle of throat and of breast light blue N. athertoni, p. 116. 



Middle of throat and of breast scarlet N. amictus, p. 117. 



1031. Nyctiornis athertoni. The Blue-bearded Bee-eater. 



Merops athertoni, Jard. $ Selby, 111. Orn. ii, pi. 58 (1829). 



Nyctiornis athertoni, Horsf. fy M. Cat. p. 89 ; Jerdon, B.I. i, p. 211 ; 

 Godw.-Aust. J.A.S. B. xliii, pt. 2, p. 153 ; Blyth 8f Wald. Birds 

 Burma, p. 73 ; Hume Sf Inglis, S. F. \, p. 18 ; Fairbank, ibid. 

 p. 394 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 68 ; Hume, S. F. vii, p. 203 ; 

 xi, p. 42 ; id. Cat. no. 122 ; Anderson, Yunnan Exped., Aves, 

 p. 583 ; Bingham, S. F. ix, pp. 153, 472 ; Butler, ibid. p. 382 ; 

 Damson, S. F. x, p. 351 ; Macyregor, ibid. p. 436 ; Oates, B. B. ii, 



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