APPENDIX IV. 
Ivii 
surrounds the bead : the hind part of the neck is of a dirty yellowish white, 
the upper part of the back, the scapulars, and the principal part of the wings 
are dusky brown, becoming almost black on the wings, and below the neck- 
collar ; on the lesser coverts is an interrupted oblique bar of white, and the 
base of the quills is of the same colour, forming a very small spot when the 
wing s are unclosed. In the middle of the wing the feathers have their exterior 
webs deeply margined with a changeable greenish blue, and their inner webs 
and tips are dusky ; some few of the tertials have a very pale, almost whitish 
edgeabout the tip : the prime quills are white at the base, as noticed above, 
then nearly black, with a small part of the outer edge greenish blue, and 
thence to the end dusky brown, the first quill having a very narrow edge of 
whitish along the outer web. The lower part of the back range and upper 
tail coverts are dusky, with the ends of the feathers of a glossy pale blue, so 
that the latter is the only colour visible without displacing the plumage ; the 
tail is of a fine blue, changing into green, according to the light ; the inner 
margin dusky; the shafts pale at the base, and afterwards of a chesnut 
colour. The general colour of the under parts is whitish, pure on the 
chin and throat, as well as the under wing coverts and base of all the quills, 
except the two first secondaries, which, as well as a round spot below the 
bastard wing, are dusky black ; below the white part the quills are ex- 
tremely dark, with dusky ends ; the feathers on the breast and sides have 
a very narrow dash of dusky down the shafts ; the belly, under-tail coverts, 
and vent, yellowish white, with a tinge on the last of the same blue which 
covers the rump: the tail is dusky underneath; the claws brown. 
No. 18. Meropsfurcatus. — Fork-tailed Bee-eater. 
Length above nine inches ; bill black, an inch and a half in length, from 
the tip to the gape, or rather above one inch to the nostrils ; general colour 
of the plumage bright yellow green, in some lights almost of a golden colour, 
in others having a chesnut tinge ; from the nostrils to the hind part of the 
head a stripe of black extends, in which the eyes are placed : the chin and 
throat are vivid yellow, edged all round by a line of blueish green, and 
bounded below the throat with a straight bar of bright ultramarine blue. 
The breast is of the same colour with the back, and the rest of the under parts 
* H 
