362 On a New Genus of the Meropidce. [June, 



and nearly twice as high as broad immediately beyond the base. The 

 ridge above, though narrow, is quite flat from the brow to the centre of 

 length ; beyond it and below, convex. So great is the lateral com- 

 pression, that the sides are plane and nearly vertical : the cutting edges 

 are trenchant and unemarginated : the tips pointed and nearly equal. 

 The nares are rounded, lateral, basal ; the fossa? evanescent ; the aper- 

 ture covered closely by a small incumbent tuft of setaceous plumuli. 



The tongue is long, flattened, pointed, cartilaginous, and feathered 

 towards the tip. The gape is scarcely cleft to the fore angle of the 

 eye, and smooth. 



The wings are of very moderate length, but of great and pretty 

 uniform fulness or breadth : the tertiaries and primaries equal : first 

 and second primaries considerably and subequally gradated : third 

 and fourth nearly equal. Fourth longest : first not bastard; more 

 than half as loDg as the fourth. 



The tail is rather long, and is composed of twelve very firm, broad, 

 and equal feathers. The tarsi are very low : knees and more plumose : 

 acrotarsia scaled : paratarsia smooth : toes long and typically syn- 

 dactyle ; the soles being quite flat, and the exterior toe joined to the 

 central fore as far as the second joint — the interior, as far as the first. 

 Nails subequal, much compressed, falcate, feeble, and acute : the 

 central fore with a large unpectinated comb. From the chin to the 

 breast depends a row of plumes, inserted opposite to each other on 

 either side the trachea. They are more than two inches long, of 

 composed web, and medial equal breadth. Their mobility gives the 

 living bird a very grotesque appearance. Some such appendage 

 seems to distinguish one of the true bee- eaters, viz. that called 

 amictus. 



These birds feed principally on bees and their congeners : but 

 they likewise consume great quantities of scarabaei and their like. 

 They are of dull staid manners, and never quit the deepest recesses 

 of the forest. 



In the Raja's shooting excursions they are frequently taken alive 

 by the clamorous multitude of sportsmen, some two or more of whom 

 single out a bird and presently make him captive, disconcerted as he 

 is by the noise. It may be worth while to add, in conclusion, that 

 the true bee-eaters are never seen in the mountains : nor the Bucia 

 ever, I believe, in the plains. The intestinal canal in our birds is 

 usually about twelve inches long, with caeca of an inch and more in 

 length, placed near to the bottom of it. The stomach is muscular, 

 and of medial subequal thickness. Such, too, is the character of the 

 stomach and intestines in Merops. 



