MEROPS BULLOCKOIDES.*— Smith. 



AvEs.— Plate IX. (Male.) 



M. fronte subalbida ; vertice pallide ca'ruleo-\'iridi ; ccrvico, poctore, abdomineque siimmo pallide cinna- 

 momcis ; dorso, liuiueris, caudaqvie viridibus ; caiida' tcctricibus siiperioribus inforioribusque cyaneis ; 

 t»nia per oculos nigra subtus albo-marginata ; giila alba ; gutture coccineo ; rectricium secimdariarum 

 apicibus nigris. 



LONGITUDO, Ti line. 



Merops Bullockoides. South African Quarterly Journal, 1 SSi. 



Colour. — Front whitish ; top of the head pale bluish green ; the back and 

 sides of the neck, the breast, and the belly, pale cinnamon brown ; vent dirty 

 green ; back, wings and tail light grass-green ; the upper and under tail 

 coverts, and a spot on each side at the base of the thigh ultra-marine blue. The 

 side of the head crossed by a deep black band, edged below with white, which 

 colour also prevails on the chin ; throat scarlet ; the inner surface of the 

 shoulder, and the edges of the inner vanes of quill feathers fulvous, the 

 secondaries broadly tipt with black ; the inner vanes of the tail feathers, with 

 the exception of the two centre ones, margined with dull brown. Bill and 

 claws black ; legs and toes greenish black. Eyes crimson. 



Form, &c. — Bill broad at the base, slightly curved, the culmen carinated 

 and moderately arched ; nostrils oval and partially covered by recumbent 

 wiry feathers or short black bristles. Wings, when closed, reach to about the 

 commencement of the last third of the tail ; the third and fourth quill feathers 

 the longest, the second and fifth nearly equal, the first about half the length 

 of the third. One or two of the tertiary wing feathers nearly as long as the 

 primaries. The extremity of the tail square or very slightly rounded. 



* So named from its general resemblance to Merops Bullockii. 



