78 BLUE-CHEEKED BEE-EATEE. 
nopsis of Birds, itself a compilation, has given rise 
to much of this confusion, from having been taken 
as the text-hook for other compilations ; so that if 
an ornithologist is desirous of determining those 
species described by Linmeus, his only prospect of 
success lies in consulting the editions of the Si/stema 
Nalura, and the authorities or synonymes quoted by 
the illustrious author. We have been more than 
usually anxious to do this in respect to the species 
before us, by consulting the various descriptions of 
Latham, Vieillot, Shan, &c. &c., as well as the 
original accounts by Button, Brisson, and Edwards. 
To give all the details of this examination would be 
tedious ; it results, however, that this bird is not 
the M crops superciliosus of Linmeus, who depends 
entirely upon Brisson for that species. Brisson’s 
description is of a bird from Madagascar, possessing 
many points of resemblance to this, but distin- 
guished by having the “ upper part of the head of a 
very obscure green, and changing, according to the 
direction of the light, to a brilliant ruarron or chest- 
nut ( un marron brillant ) * /’ whereas the head of 
our species is of the same bright green as the rest of 
the back. In Brisson’s bird the band over and 
under the eye is “ d’un blanc mele d'une legerere 
teinte de verd," but in this the colour is bright tour- 
quoise-blue, green only where it blends into the 
adjoining colours. It is not necessary, in this place, 
to determine what are the other supposed varieties 
of superciliosus, a name which seems to comprise 
* Brisson, Om. iv. p. 547, 
