560 JO URNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



company for any length of time. It feads far less on the wing than 

 most of the members of the Meropidce, frequenting high trees and 

 searching the leaves and flowers for insects. The cotton-tree, when in 

 bloom, is a very favourite resort of these birds, and when on these they 

 devote their attentions entirely to the open flowers, not once in one hour 

 pursuing any insect on the wing. They are shy birds as a rule, and 

 are not easy to approach, though sometimes one, out of sheer stupidity, 

 will sit and croak whilst a looker-on is within a few yards of it. 



Their note is a very harsh double croak ending in a chuckle, and is 

 one which once heard cannot afterwards be mistaken for any other bird's 

 cry. When uttering this note, the bird stoops down until its head is 

 lower than its tail, puffs out its throat and gives vent to the first croak ; 

 then, rising gradually, it chuckles out the last notes with head high in 

 the air. 



The whole of the movements of this bird on the wing are far less 

 light and rapid than those of the genus Merops ; still they are not un- 

 graceful. Scrambling about on a tree, however, all its actions are decid- 

 edly heavy and awkward, and the way it shifts itself sideways along a 

 branch, bobbing at every step, and appearing rather doubtful about its 

 balance, is very ludicrous. 



(469) Merops viridis. — The Green Bee-eater. 

 Hume, No. 117. 

 Not uncommon in the plains, but does not ascend the hills beyond 

 the foot. 



(470) Mepops phillipinus.— The Blue-tailed Bee-eater. 

 Hume, No. 118. 

 I have only met with this bird once in N. Cacliar, but have seen skins 

 collected in Cachar. 



(471) Melittophagus quinticolor. — The Chestnut-headed Bee-eater. 



Hume, No. 119. 



Non-adult birds have the rufous and black band very indistinctly 

 defined, and have the head, from the forehead to the nape, of the same 

 colour as the wing-coverts ; the rufous of the back is also much mixed 

 with green. The irides are the same as in the female. 



Like all the bee-eaters, of which the nidification is well known, these 

 birds lay their eggs in a chamber placed at the extremity of a tunnel 



