BEE-EATER. 123 



the inner webs more or less fulvous ; beneath chiefly cinereous, tip- 

 ped with black ; tail green, the side feathers margined within with 

 cinereous, and all of them cinereous beneath ; the two middle ones 

 exceed the others by two inches, and the elongated part is very 

 narrow and blackish ; the shafts of all of them are brown above and 

 whitish beneath; legs brown. 



The two sexes resemble each other, but the female is less brilliant 

 in colour. — That of Edwards has the forehead, cheeks, and throat 

 blue; breast and belly light green; behind the head and neck 

 orange red ; between the blue and green, on the breast, is a black 

 crescent, and a black streak through the eyes ; back and wing 

 coverts Parrot-green ; rump blue-green ; greater quills black ; the 

 middle ones orange, bordered with green, and spotted with black 

 within the tips, which are orange. 



In some Indian drawings it is called Chuta Pateronga ; one which 

 seems to correspond with Edwards's bird, was named Oora Mutche 

 Rungah. In the drawings of General Hardwicke named Ptringa, 

 Bonse-peter and Soo choora. Met with at Anoopshere, the end of 

 December. 



Young birds are without the black streak across the throat, and 

 I have seen some with the fore part of the neck rufous brown. — This 

 species is to be found all the year near Calcutta, called commonly 

 Bonsputta, and by the Bird catchers Purtinga : feeds on insects, 

 especially grasshoppers. 



Inhabits Bengal ; has also been met with at Java. 



A. — Apiaster Bengalensis torquatus, Bris. iv. 552. Id. 8vo. ii. 199. Ind. Orn. i. 



270. 2. (3. 

 Bengal Bee-Eater, Gen. Syn. ii. 671. A. Alb. iii. pi. 30. 



Length eleven inches and a quarter. Forehead blue, in pthea 



respects much like the former. 



R 2 



