MEROPS PH1LIPPINUS. 
(THE BLUE-TAILED BEE-EATER.) 
Merops phiUppinus, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. xiii. tom. i. p. 183 (1767); Lath. Ind. Orn. tom. i. 
p. 271 (1790) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 52 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 
p. 118 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 173 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. 
B. Mus. E. I. Co. p. 87 (1854) ; Gould, B. of Asia, pt. vii. (1855) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 
1872, p. 422 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 281 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, i. p. 101 ; id. Str. Feath. 
1876, p. 287. 
Merops javanicus, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 294 (1820). 
Merops dciudinii, Cuv. Kegn. An. 1829, t. i. p. 442. 
Merops philippensis, Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 207 ; Blyth, Comm. Jerd. B. of Ind., Ibis, 1866, 
p. 344 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 13. 
Grand GuSpier des Philippines (juv.), Buffon, PI. Enl. 57 ; Le GuSpier Daudin (juv.), Levaill. 
pi. 14, p. 49 ; “ Flycatcher ” of Europeans in India and Ceylon. 
Boro-putringa , Beng. ; Burra-putringa , Hind. ; Komit passeriki, Tel. ( J erdon) ; Kachangan, 
Java (Horsf.) ; Berray Berray , Malay ; Shale, Nicobarese (Davison). 
Kurumenne kurulla, lit. “Beetle-bird,” Sinhalese; Kattalan kuruvi, lit. “Aloe-bird” *, Tam. ; 
Pappugai de Champ, Portug., lit. “ Ground-Parrot ” ( apud Layard). 
Adult male and female. Length 12-0 inches ; wing 5-0 to 5-4 ; tail 5-9, central feathers 2-3 longer than the rest ; tarsus 
0-45 to 0-5 ; mid toe and claw 0-85 ; bill to gape (straight) 2-0 to 2-1. Expanse 16-75. 
Iris scarlet; bill black; legs and feet blackish, hinder part of tarsus paler. 
Head, back, and sides of neck, back, scapulars, and wing-covert-s shining brownish green, brownest on the head and 
hind neck, and passing into the bright green-blue of the rump and upper tail-coverts ; external edges of the 
primaries and secondaries greenish blue, the remaining portion of the feathers pervaded with brown, which 
changes at the basal part of the inner webs into cinnamon-rufous ; tips of the shorter primaries and of all the 
secondaries blackish brown ; terminal portion of the tertials and the tail (with the exception of the blackish 
elongated tips of the central feathers) bright greenish blue, the rectrices brownish internally. 
A broad black streak from the gape over the eye and ear-coverts, above it a faint line from the forehead to the posterior 
corner of the eye, and beneath it a broader stripe of bright greenish blue, the latter very pale at the termination ; 
chin and upper part of throat yellowish ; fore neck chestnut-colour, gradually changing into the faded greenish of 
the breast, which brightens into cerulean blue on the under tail-coverts ; the basal portions of the under-surface 
feathers light brownish, showing more or less throughout ; under wing concolorous with the cinnamon bases of 
the quills ; shafts of the quills and rectrices white beneath. 
Young. Iris dull red or brownish red, changing into the hue of the adult during the first year. 
Above greener than the adult ; the bases of the feathers brownish green ; rump and upper tail-coverts not so bright as 
in the adult ; central rectrices not elongated, but slightly exceeding the rest and more pointed at the tips. The 
blue loral and cheek-stripes less conspicuous, and the chin not so yellow as in the adult ; under tail-coverts 
paling at their lateral margins. 
The above is the plumage of the young birds arriving in Oeylon in September ; they quickly acquire the adult tail, and 
meanwhile the normal yellowish feathers of the chin and the chestnut ones of the throat make their appearance, 
the latter part in the quite young bird being much paler than in the adult. 
Obs. I have examined some examples from Sumatra, and one or two from India, in the British Museum, which have 
* According to Layard from a fancied resemblance in the tail of this bird to the aloe-plant. 
