INHABITING THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO. 151 
Brisson’s diagnosis of the upper parts is as follows :—“ Partes capitis et colli superiores, 
sicut et dorsi suprema, et scapulares penne sunt eleganter castanee.” In the French 
he characterizes the colouring of these parts as being of a “beau marron.” With the 
Philippine bird to compare, it is impossible not to recognize in it the -Brissonian 
species; but in its absence the Malayan Bee-eater satisfies the complete diagnosis, pro- 
vided we are prepared to read “ eleganter castanee” as meaning chocolate-colour. It 
is therefore not surprising that the Malayan Merops should hitherto have been 
referred to If. badius, Gm.; and we are indebted to Dr. A. B. Meyer for recovering a 
species so long unrecognized. 
Both D’Aubenton and Le Vaillant figure the Brissonian species with a bright chestnut 
head and back, the latter author, with his accustomed inaccuracy, stating that he had 
met the bird on the east coast of Africa, near the Caffre country, where it remained 
about fifteen days; but as the flocks did not remain there longer, and he never saw the 
species again, he was unable to say whether it nested in that country! It is very 
questionable if Le Vaillant ever saw the bird at all; for, although the colouring of his 
plate agrees with the Brissonian description, in the letterpress Le Vaillant says that the 
chestnut mantle only covers the upper back, while he describes the head and the wings 
as blue like the rest of the body. Montbeillard’s account (J.¢.) appears by internal 
evidence to have been taken from Brisson. D’Aubenton’s plate may or may not have 
been coloured from an actual example; but whether the two figures were composed 
from Brisson’s description or drawn from real specimens, they are of value, as showing 
the nature of the chestnut colouring of the head and back,—if from the description, by 
depicting the colour “beau marron”—if from the bird itself, by representing its 
coloration. 
Dr. v. Martens (/.c.) introduces WM. ornatus, Lath., as a Philippine species he had 
observed preserved in the Military Library at Manilla. He describes it as having the 
entire under surface of a lively grass-green, and as having no throat-band. Judging 
by the young plumage of VW. sumatranus, Raffles, before the chocolate mantle is 
assumed, it is not improbable that the bird described was a young individual of I. 
bicolor. Apiaster philippensis minor, Briss. (J. ¢.), up to now an unidentified species, 
with the middle pair of rectrices not fully developed, and regarded by Montbeillard 
(tom. cit. p. 500) as being the same as MV. viridis, Linn., probably was founded on J. 
bicolor in immature dress. 
I. bicolor seems to be the species of Merops inhabiting Negros, alluded to by Mr. 
L. C. Layard (Ibis, 1872, p. 96). 
The Bee-eater which inhabits Sumatra, Malacca, and Borneo (Pl. XXVI. fig. 2), and 
hitherto referred to WM. badius, Gm., will stand :— 
Merops sumatranus, Rafiles, Tr. L. Soc, vol. xiii. p. 294, “Sumatra” (1821). 
Merops cyanopygius, Less. Tr. p. 238, Patr. non indic. (1831), ex “Sumatra and Java,” fide Pucher. 
R. Mag. Zool. 1853, p. 391. 
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