MEROPS SWINHOII. 



(THE CHESTNUT-HEADED BEE-EATER.) 



Merops quinticolor, Vieillot, N. Diet. xiv. p. 81 (1817); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 119 

 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 174 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. 

 Mus. E. I. Co. p. SS (1854); Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 208; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, 

 p. 423 ; Walden, Ibis, 1873, p. 301 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 13. 



Merops erythrocephalus, Brisson, Av. iv. p. 563 ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 53 (1849) ; 

 Swinhoe,P. Z. S. 1871, p. 348. 



Merops swinlwei, Hume, Nests and Eggs (Rough Draft), p. 102 ; id. Str. Feath. 1874, p. 163 ; 

 Ball, ibid. p. 380 ; Armstrong, ibid. 1876, p. 305. 



Le GuSpier quinticolor, Levaillant, Hist. Nat. Guepiers, p. 51, pi. 15 (ex Ceylon). 



The Five-coloured Bee-eater, Kelaart, Prodromus ; "Flycatcher" of Europeans in India and 

 Ceylon. 



Kurumenne kurulla, Sinhalese, Southern Province ; Fook-Jiira, Sinh., N.W. Province. 



Adult mail and female. Length 8 - 4 to 8 - fi inches ; wing 4-2 to 4-3 : tail 3-3 ; tarsus 045, middle toe and claw 0'65 ; bill 

 to gape 1"6 to 1*8. 



( I n this species the tail-feathers are not elongated, but the tail is somewhat sinuated, the central pair being rounded at 

 the tips and longer than those adjacent, though shorter than the laterals.) 



I lis scarlet : bill black : legs and feet dark vinous brown or purplish brown. 



Head, hind neck, sides of the same, interscapular region, and upper edge of black throat-band bright chestnut ; wings 

 and tail dull green, edges of wing-coverts, terminal portion of tertials, and edges of rectrices bluish; rump and 

 upper coi ert s pale cerulean blue, tips of the longer-coverts darker : tips of quills and rectrices, with the exception 

 of the centrals, brownish black ; inner webs of secondaries, borders of those of primaries, and under wing cinnamon- 

 red as in the other species. 



A black facial stripe, narrower than in the last, passing from the gape beneath the eye : chin and throat rich saffron- 

 yellow; black throat-band bordered beneath with golden yellow ; beneath this the underparts are green, passing 

 into pale greenish blue on the lower breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts. 



Young. /Unix of the year have the chestnut of the upper surface paler, the throat whitish, the black band ill-defined 

 and slightly edged with yellow r beneath, the wing-coverts and secondaries margined with blue, and the chest 

 greenish blue like the lower parts. The nestlings, which are blind for the first few days, quickly acquire the 

 leathers of their first plumage as here described. 



This species was first made known from Ceylon — that is to say, specimens were sent to Levaillant from there, 

 and tin' bird was named by him, in his work on the ' Guepiers,' the Guipier quinticolor; but by some oversight he 

 gave a plate of the species inhabiting Java, and accompanied it by a description, in which he stated the colour of 

 tin' throat to be " d'un janne jonquille, lequel jauue est termine au has par un collier noir," making no mention of 

 the triangular chestnut throat-patch above the black mark, which character is wanting in the Javan bird, as it 

 likewise is in his plate. His plate and description did not therefore apply to the Ceylon bird, nor can Vieillot's 

 name, which was founded on the plate. Merops quinticolor accordingly is the Javan bird, and not the Indian. The 

 matter has been referred to by the late Mr. Swinhoe and Lord Tweeddale in the references above given, and 

 .Mr. Hume gave the Indian bird its present title in his notice of it in ' Nests and Eggs,' as it was without a name. 

 Ceylonese examples correspond with Indian and Burmese in size and likewise in coloration of the throat, though 

 individuals from any district w ill differ inter sc in this latter respect. One specimen I have examined in the 

 British Museum from Madras has a wider black throat-band than any I have seen from Ceylon. Pinang specimens 

 correspond with Ceylonese. 



Distribution. — This handsome Bee-eater is sparingly dispersed over the island, inhabiting some localities 



