MEROPIDAE 387 



parts, the crest being green with black transverse stripes, and 

 the bill black. Alcedo ispida of Britain, the whole of Europe, 

 and the greater part of Asia, has greenish - blue upper parts, 

 brighter blue head and tail, chestnut under parts and broad eye- 

 streak, white throat and patches at the side of the neck, and 

 black bill, often orange at the base. A. leryllina of Java and 

 Lombok differs in being entirely greenish-blue above, and white 

 with a blue chest-band below. Ceryle is the sole genus found 

 in the New World, though it occurs also in South-East Europe, 

 most of Asia and Africa ; C alcyon, the Belted Kingfisher, alone 

 reaches the jSTorthern United States and Canada. The half dozen 

 large crested species are generally black and white, relieved by 

 chestnut or grey, but C. amuzuna and its nearest allies are dull 

 green above. 



Felargopsis gurial of India and Assam, one of the " Stork- 

 billed Kingfishers," has a brown head, yellowish-fawn collar and 

 imder parts, dull green mantle and tail, greenish-blue lower back, 

 and red beak. 



Fam. I^^ Meropidae. — The Bee-eaters are extremely larilliant 

 and graceful birds, which range over the temperate and tropical 

 portions of the Old World, being especially plentiful in the 

 Ethiopian Eegion, and somewhat less so in the Indian. The 

 Palaearctic countries possess only four species, but Celebes alone 

 has three, one of which (Merops ornatus) extends through the 

 Moluccas to Papuasia and Australia. 



The bill is long and gradually curved, with a culminar ridge 

 and deflected mandible, the maxilla being grooved and more 

 arched in Nyctiornis. The short, stout metatarsus, which is 

 weaker in Merops, is scutellated anteriorly and reticulated pos- 

 teriorly ; the abbreviated toes — rather longer in Nyctiornis — 

 have slender curved claws, and are united in the case of the 

 third and fourth to the last joint, in the second and third to a 

 less extent. The. usually short and rounded wings are long and 

 pointed in Mrmps and Dicrucernis ; the primaries number eleven, 

 or ten in XycUorn.i.s, and the secondaries twelve or thirteen. 

 The tail of twelve rectrices is even in Melittophagns and Xyc- 

 iiornis, deeply forked in Dicrocercus, and square with two 

 elongated and tapering median feathers in Merops and Jlln-djioi/ini. 

 The furcula is U-shaped, the tongue is lanceolate, the nostrils 

 are concealed by dense feathers in Xyctiornis and Mcropogon; 



