148 



BEE-EATER. 



throat a large patch of blue ; below this a curved, dull red mark ; 

 tail long, rounded at the end, dusky black, crossed with three bars of 

 buff colour, dotted minutely with dusky; the two nearer the base 

 double, so as to make five bars in all ; wings reach one-third on the 

 tail ; legs long, and dusky blue. 



Another of these, for the most part, dark olive-green ; crown, 

 rump, and vent rufous yellow ; on each side of the head the same 

 streak of blue ; as also on the throat, and across the wings ; tail the 

 same, but only with three dotted yellowish bars, some of them being 

 bifid. 



The nest is of a round shape, open at the top, tied to forks of 

 branches, composed of fine fibres, lined with soft materials. 



34— BLUE-CRESTED BEE-EATER, 



LENGTH six inches and a half. Bill nearly one inch, swelling 

 a little at the base, the under mandible shorter; tongue sharp at 

 the end, colour of both reddish ; at the base a few scattered bristles ; 

 on the head an erect, blue crest, or tuft, pointed at top, and conical ; 

 head, and half the neck dull red, inclining to chestnut ; the rest of 

 the body reddish orange, verging to brown on the back ; from the 

 nostrils, even with the eye, and round the throat black ; above the 

 breast a large black, round patch, with a circle of red in the middle ; 

 wing coverts blue, marked with small, round, orange spots, below 

 this a transverse pale yellow band ; quills brown ; tail two inches 

 long, blue, crossed in four places with treble lines of pale brown ; 

 legs dusky. 



A second bird, in the same drawings, has a blue crest, and the 

 head and half the neck are not red, but chestnut; the body has a 

 brown tinge, and the marks on the breast are wanting ; the space 

 round the chin and beneath the eye, not black, but dusky. 



