Birds of Celebes; Meropidae. 
247 
ORDER CORACIAE. 
There is little agreement among systematists as to the value of the Bee- 
eaters, Kingfishers, Rollers, Goatsuckers, and Swifts, as orders or families of the 
Avian System. We prefer to take the three first groups as families of the Co- 
raciae, placing the Goatsuckers and Swifts in a different order, the Macrochires, 
though it is possible that the Rollers (for instance, Eurystomus) may have certain 
affinities with the latter. In the Coraciae the bill is strong, often very large or 
long, the palate desmognathous, the wdng short to moderately long; in the 
Macrochires the bill is generally very small, soft, and weak, the gape very deep 
and wide, the palate aegithognathous, or schizognathous, the wing very long. 
FAMILY MEROPIDAE. 
In the Bee-eaters the bill is long, thin, sharp, and slightly decurved; the 
foot has three toes in front and one behind, the tarsus is short, not longer than 
the hind toe and claw; the tail of moderate length, square, or forked, or with 
the two middle rectrices prolonged and with the projecting ends attenuated; the 
secondaries and inner primaries with a heart-shaped tip. The colours are very 
bright, green being most prevalent, also blue, black, ■ yellow, red, and mixed 
hues occur. The birds breed in holes in the ground, laying white eggs; their 
food, consisting of Uymenoftera and other insects, is, we believe, generally, if 
not alw^ays, captured on the wing. The family is found in the temperate and 
tropical parts of the Old World. 
Tor anatomical particulars: see Beddard in Dresser’s “Monograph of the 
Meroj)idae”, Introduction; and Sharpe, Cat. B. XVII 1892, 41, etc. 
GENUS MEROPS L. 
The typical Bee-eaters have the two middle tail-feathers of the adult length- 
ened and terminally attenuated, the wing is moderately long and pointed, the 
first primary very minute, the second the longest. Their powers of flight are 
o-reat. Green, or yellow-green, is the most characteristic colour-, except in two 
or three African species in which carmine-red predominates. Seventeen species, 
with a range nearly over the whole of the Old World, are admitted in the 
Catalogue of Birds, vol. XVII. 
