VI 



MEROPIDAE 



389 



never much elongated ; Meropogon and Nyctiornis have the gular 

 feathers broad and lengthened into a tuft. 



The Family contains five genera with some thirty-five species, 

 varying in size from fourteen inches in Merops natalensis to 

 about six and half in several forms of Melittoplmgus. Nyctiornis 

 amictus, of the Malay countries, is green, with lilac forehead and 

 crown, scarlet cheeks and throat-tuft, and a few greenish- blue 

 plumes at the base of the bill. Meropogon forsteri of Celebes is 

 also green, but has the crown, gular plumes arid breast cobalt-blue, 

 the occiput and nape brown, the abdomen dusky, and the lateral 

 tail-feathers reddish-brown margined with green. Merops apiaster 

 has ruddy-brown head, neck, upper back, and broad alar bar, 

 buff lower back, green wings and tail with black tips to the 

 long median rectrices, light blue upper tail-coverts, pale green 

 <and white forehead, black ear-coverts, and bright yellow throat, 

 divided from the greenish-blue under parts by a black band. It 

 not unfrequently visits 

 Britain as the Blue- 

 tailed Bee -eater, M. 

 philippinus, is said to 

 have done once and 

 ranges from South 

 Europe to Central Asia 

 and North Africa, 

 wintering in North - 

 West India and South 

 Africa. M. viridis, 

 extending from Sene- 

 gambia to North-East 

 Africa and Cochin 

 China, is yellowish- 

 green, with a rufous 

 tint on the hind-neck, 

 much buff on the 

 wing- and tail-quills, 

 ;a black band washed 

 with blue on the fore- 

 neck, and some blue and black on the face. M. nulicus of the 

 northern half of the Ethiopian Eegion has crimson-pink upper 

 parts, blue-green head and throat, light blue rump and abdomen, 



