80 
BLTJE-CHEEKED BEE-EATER. 
rufous patch just mentioned, the breast and all the 
under parts become of a uniform green, brighter and 
more inclined to blue than is the upper plumage. 
In the wings there is nothing peculiar; the black tips 
of the lesser quills are smaller than usual, and the 
comer surface is rufous. The lateral tail-feathers 
are perfectly even, strongly emarginate, and entirely 
grey beneath; the middle pair are lanceolate, and 
project from two inches to two inches and a quarter 
beyond the others ; their tips are blacltish-green*. 
Total length, excluding the two long tail-feathers, 
10 inches; bill, from the front, 1^; wings, ; 
tail beyond, 1, from the base, 3f . 
BLUE-BELLIED BEE-EATEU. 
Merops cyanogaster, Swains. 
PLATE VIII. 
Green ; neck and body beneath glossed with ferrugineous ; 
chin, black ; throat, crimson ; belly and under tail-covers, 
shining blue. 
Le Gnepier a gorge rouge, Le Vaill. pi. 20 Merops Bullocki, 
Auclorum. 
The Blue-bellied Bee-eater is not only a particu- 
larly splendid species, but one of such rarity that we 
do not remember to have seen more than four 
* Since this has been written, I have visited the King's 
Library in the British Museum, for the sole purpose of in- 
specting Le Vaillant’s work ; and whatever doubt may hang 
over the bird figured at plate 6, I am clearly of opinion that 
the one on plate 6 bis. is the Senegal species here described. 
