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which, as arule, has a distinct ridge; the nostrils are basal, lateral, rounded, partly or entirely 
hidden by short, stiff feathers or bristles. The tarsus is very short, often feathered on the upper 
part, sometimes bare, sometimes covered in front with narrow transverse scales or scutella. 
The three anterior toes are rather long, the lateral ones more or less united to the middle toe; 
the hind toe is also relatively long and broadly padded beneath; the claws are moderately long, 
curved and acute. The tail, long and rather broad, consists of twelve rectrices and is sometimes 
square, sometimes rounded or forked; the middle feathers are often prolonged beyond the 
lateral ones. The wing is more or less elongate and pointed; the first primary is rudimentary ; 
either the second is the longest or the third and fourth form the tip of the wing. The iris of the 
adults is as a rule bright red. The sexes are alike in plumage, but the female is somewhat 
smaller than the male. The young birds are of a more uniform and fallow coloration, sometimes 
duller, sometimes lighter. 
Habits and Reproduction. The J/eropidae are very active birds, have a graceful, 
extremely rapid flight which somewhat resembles that of the swallows, and a loud, sometimes 
cheerful and chirruping whistling, sometimes a hoarse, repeatedly uttered note. They preter 
well-watered countries, especially the neighbourhood of rivers, and frequent the sparingly 
covered plains and open forests, some migrating, others remaining all the year in the same 
locality. They usually perch on commanding branches or other objects, from which they are 
likely to have a good out-look for espying their food, which consists only of flying insects (wasps, 
bees, dragon-flies, bugs and even butterflies), On migrating they are usually seen in large or 
small flocks, flying backwards and forewards in graceful sweeps for long periods without 
resting, and catching its prey entirely on the wing. 
The young, being helpless at the beginning of their live, are reared in horizontal holes, 
digged by their parents in perpendicular banks of rivers, in earthy enbankments or in crumbly 
rocks (sometimes in old quarries and pits); the entrance is small, reaching inwardly to the 
depth of a yard or more and having at the end of the tube a roomy chambre; the eggs, from 
four to eight in a clutch, are pure white, glossy and roundish, and are deposited on the bare 
ground or on a lining of remains of food (fragments of insects) and ejectamenta. It has been 
reported that some species lay their eggs in the holes of trees. 
Range. The distribution of the Meropfidae is very wide, extending as it does over the 
temperate and tropical portions of the Old World, The majority of the species are to be found 
in Africa, where also the origin of the family is probably to be looked for. Up to-date we know 
about fifty species and subspecies of Bee-eaters, of which twenty-nine are purely African. 
Bibliography. Levaillant, Hist. Nat. des Promerops et des Guépiers fais. suite a celle des Oiseaux de 
Paradis : Hist. Nat. Guépiers, 24 partie (1807); Gould, Birds Australia, Vol. 2 (1840); 
Nitzsch, in Burmeister, Syst. Pterylographie (1840); G. R. Gray. Gen. of Birds, Vol. 1, 
p. 85-87 (1844-1849); Gould, Birds Asia, Vol. 1 (1850-1873); Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Avium, 
Vol. 1, p. 160-164 (1850); Reichenbach, Handb. Spec. Ornith. Meropine, p. 61 83 (1852); 
Cabanis & Heine, Mus. Heinean. 2. Theil, p. 132-142 (1859-60); Schlegel, Mus. Hist. Nat. 
Pays-Bas, Vol. 3, Merops (1863); Huxley, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1867, p. 467 ff. (Classif.) ; 
Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1873, p. 631; 1874, p. 117 (Anatomy); Dresser, Monogr. 
Meropide (1884-86); Sharpe, Review rec. attempts classify Birds (1884); Newton, Encycl. 
Britann. Vol. 18, Ornith. (1884); Fiirbringer, Untersuch. Morphol. und System. Végel, Vol. 2, 
