INHABITINa THE PHILIPPINE AECHIPELAGO. 151 



Brisson's diagnosis of the upper parts is as follows : — " Partes capitis'et colli superiores, 

 sicut et dorsi suprema, et scapulares pennce sunt eleganter castanece." In the French 

 he characterizes the colouring of these parts as being of a " beau marron." With the 

 Philippine bird to compare, it is imjjossible not to recognize in it the Brissonian 

 species ; but in its absence the Malayan Bee-eater satisfies the complete diagnosis, pro- 

 i'ided we are prepared to read " eleganter castanece " as meaning chocolate-colour. It 

 is therefore not surprising that the Malayan Merops should hitherto have been 

 referred to 3£. hadius, 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 {I. c.) 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 {I.e.) introduces M. ornatns. 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 gi-ass-green, and as having no throat-band. Judging 

 by the young plumage of M. sumatramis. Baffles, before the chocolate mantle is 

 assumed, it is not improbable that the bird described was a yoiing individual of M. 

 bicolor. Apiaster 2}hilippensis minor, Briss. {I. c), up to now an unidentified species, 

 with the middle pair of rectrices not fully developed, and regarded by Montbeillard 

 {tovfi. cit. p. 500) as being the same as M. viridis, Linn., probably was founded on 31. 

 bicolor in immature dress. 



M. 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 (PI. XXVI. fig. 2), and 

 hitherto referred to M. badius, Gm., will stand : — 

 Merops sumatranus, Raffles, Tr. L. Soc. vol. xiii. p. 294, "Sumatra" (1831). 



Merops cyanopygius, Less. Tr. p. 238, Pair, non indie. (1831), ex " Sumatra and Java.," fide Pucher. 

 R. Mag. Zool. 1853, p. 391. 



x2 



