FAM. MEROPID& 
_ BY Dr CARL PARROT 
HE Meropidae (Bee-eaters) form one of the most sharply defined and characteristic 
groups of the great order Picariae, suborder Coraciae. From their morpholo- 
gical features it is difficult to say to which other group they are most nearly 

related, for there are close affinities to the family A/cedinidae while it cannot be 
denied either that the Meropidae are also, though more distantly, allied to the Todidae and 
Momotidae. 
The bee-eaters differ from the other six families of the Coraciae by having the episternal 
process forked (as in the majority of the Passeres) and perforated so as to receive the feet of the 
coracoids (as in the Upupidae and Bucerotidae). Some authors are inclined to place the 
Meropidae between the Coraciidae and the Galbulidae. 
The most essential characters of the Meropine structure may be summarised as follows : 
The skull is desmognathous and has a deep grove; the palate is desmognathous; the nasalia 
are holorhine, the basypterygoid processes are absent; the sternum has four notches on the 
posterior edge (episternal process vidé supra); the crista sterni is produced into a distinct 
point; the scapula is very long and relatively broad. The tongue is narrow, elongated and 
ends in horny filaments; the cesophagus lacks a crop, the gizzard is provided with a very 
thick enticula; the right liver-lobe is much enlarged; the coeca are present. Generally there is 
only the left carotid developed, but in Nyctiornis there are two. The oil-gland is nude. The 
epinal tract is well defined on the neck, but divided into two tracts on the upper back; the 
pectoral tract has also an outer branch. 
The Bee-eaters are slender, delicately built birds. The bill is longer than the head, 
acutely pointed, with both mandibles curved, the sides compressed and sloping from the culmen, 
