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Family MEROPID-E. 



Genus MEROPS. 



Apiaster apud Brisson, Orn. iv. p. 532 (1760). 



Merops, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 182 (1766). 



JBlepharomerops apud Reichenbach, Handb. d. Spec. Orn. p. 82 (1851). 



Phlothrus apud Reichenbach, Merop. p. 66 (1852). 



Like the Rollers, to which they are allied, the Bee-eaters form a very richly coloured group of 

 birds, which inhabit the warmer portions of the Old World, being found in the southern portion 

 of the Palsearctic Region, and in the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions, three species being found 

 in the Western Palsearctic Region. 



They are gregarious, and frequent river-banks, gardens, and open places, feeding on insects 

 of various kinds, which they chiefly capture on the wing. Their flight is swift, resembling that 

 of the Swallow ; and their cry is harsh and monotonous. They breed in colonies, nesting in holes 

 in a bank or cliff, usually near, but sometimes tolerably far away from water, and excavate the 

 holes themselves. Their eggs, which are roundish, pure white in colour, and glossy in texture, 

 are deposited in a chamber at the end of the nest-hole, no nest being made. 



Merops apiaster, the type of the genus, has the bill longer than the head, arched, pen- 

 tagonal at the base, then four-sided, compressed, and tapering to a point ; gape-line curved ; 

 nostrils roundish, nasal membrane short ; wings, long, pointed, the first quill very small, pointed, 

 the second longest ; tail long, the two central rectrices elongated and pointed ; feet very small 

 and feeble, the lower part of the tibia bare, the tarsus indistinctly scutellate ; toes short, slender, 

 the' anterior parallel and partly united ; claws slender, curved, compressed, acute. 



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