90 TITTLE FORK- TAILED BEE-EATER. 
feathers ; the chin, and half of the throat, is of a 
clear and full yellow, having a very narrow edging, in 
the middle of the throat only, of delicate greenish- 
blue ; this edging is followed by a transverse black 
spot of the deepest black, which is also confined to 
the middle of the throat, and is surrounded by, or 
rather placed in, the middle of a large patch of rich 
chestnut, which goes across the breast from side to 
side, and then blends into the light buff- coloured 
green of the body and belly; the primary and 
secondary quills are ferruginous, slightly shaded 
with green, with broad black ends, but the extreme 
tips of the secondaries are pale and whitish. The 
lateral feathers of the tail are coloured in the same 
way, and all these quills, both of the tail and the 
wings, have the generic character of being deeply 
emarginate. It must be observed, however, that 
this is evidently an aberrant species, for the tail is not 
only slightly forked, but in some degree lyrate, the 
external feathers inclining outwards. The first quill, 
which in Merops cipiaster is so short and spurious 
as only to be one-fifth the length of the second, is, 
in this bird, half as long as the next, while the 
quills themselves do not exceed the length of the 
scapulars and tertials. These differences, however 
slight, plainly indicate a tendency to the rasorial 
structure, as we find it represented in the drongo- 
shrikes and other lyre-tailed birds. 
Total length, 6 inches ; bill, from the front, T 9 5 ; 
from the rictus, 1 T 2 5 ; wings, 3; tail beyond, 1^; 
from the base, 2j%. 
