BEE-EATEES AJTD SWALLOWS. 
3 
their successful imitation. The total length of the 
bird is about thirteen inches. The whole of the head, 
neck, throat, and breast is enveloped, as it were, in 
a hood of very light drab, or fawn colour, glossed 
with green, which changes its tint in different direc- 
tions of light ; the di'ab sometimes assumes a warmer 
ferruginous tinge, while in others it seems changed 
into a light but dull yellowish-green ; the front, chin, 
and eyebrows are paler, and almost white ; a black 
mantle spreads over the interscapulars and the sca- 
pular-covers ; the wings are of the deepest and most 
brilliant mazarine blue, except the basal half of the 
quills, which are of a light beryl or blue-green colour ; 
the lower part of the back and upper tail-covers are deep 
blue, so also are the corresponding parts on the upper 
plumage, that is, from the breast to the vent ; the tail 
is light sea-green, brightest beneath. The under wing- 
covers, and the breast-plumes close to them, are of the 
same turquoise green as the tail ; bills and legs blackish. 
The bill of the true Bee-eater, forming the genus 
Merops^ is 
long, slender 
and slightly 
curved ; tri- 
angular at 
the base, 
and having 
an elevated 
ridge on the 
culmen. Nos- 
trils, basal, lateral, oval, and open, partly hidden by 
reflected bristles. Beet having the tarsus short, with 
