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BLUE-CHEEKED BEE-EATER. 
Merops Savigni, Le Vaillant. 
PLATE VII. 
Green : front whitish ; ears black ; stripe above and beneath 
the eye, sky blue ; chin yellow, passing into chestnut 
crown green ; wings and tail glossed with fulvous. 
Merops superciliosus ? A uetorum Le Guepier Savigny, Le 
Vaill. pi. 6. its. 
We conclude that this Bee-eater has hitherto passed 
for one of the numerous varieties of the Merops 
superciliosus of our systems, since we can hardly 
suppose that a species, apparently by no means un- 
common in Senegal, should have remained until 
this day undescribed, or undistinguished by a sepa- 
rate name. Such, however, appears to be the case ; 
unless it may be one of those figured in the rare 
and little known work of Le Vaillant, which we 
have no means of consulting : this, however, is but 
of secondary consequence, for Le Vaillant merely 
gave French names to his birds, leaving the scien- 
tific one to he imposed by those who undertook to 
incorporate his discoveries in the systems of the 
day. Whether this has or has not been done, in 
regard to the species before us, is almost equally 
uncertain ; the whole genus, as it now stands, is 
little better than one mass of confusion. The Sy- 
