MEEOPS SWINHOII. 
(THE CHESTNUT-HEADED BEE-EATER.) 
Merops quinticolor, Vieillot, N. Diet. xiv. p. 81 (1817); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 119 
(1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 174 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. 
Mus. E. I. Co. p. 88 (1854); Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 208; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, 
p. 423; Walden, Ibis, 1873, p. 301 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 13. 
Merops erythrocephalus , Brisson, Av. iv. p. 563 ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. o3 (1849) ; 
Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 348. 
Merops swinhoei, Hume, Nests and Eggs (Rough Draft), p. 102 , id. Sti. Feath. 18/4, p. 16o , 
Ball, ibid. p. 386 ; Armstrong, ibid. 1876, p. 305. 
Le Guepier quinticolor, Levaillant, Hist. Nat. Guepiers, p. 51, pi. 15 (ex Ceylon). 
The Five-coloured Bee-eater, Kelaart, Prodromus ; “ Flycatcher ” of Europeans in India and 
Ceylon. 
Kurumenne Jcurulla, Sinhalese, Southern Province ; PooJc-Jcira, Sinh., N.W. Province. 
Adult male and female. Length 8-4 to 8-6 inches ; wing 4-2 to 4-3 ; tail 3-3 ; tarsus 045, middle toe and claw 005 ; bill 
to gape 1'6 to 1'8. 
{ In this species the tail-feathers are not elongated, but the tail is somewhat sinuated, the central pair being rounded at 
the tips and longer than those adjacent, though shorter than the laterals.) 
Iris scarlet ; bill black ; legs and feet dark vinous brown or purplish brown. 
Head, hind neck, sides of the same, interscapular region, and upper edge of black throat-band bright chestnut ; wings 
and tail dull green, edges of wing-coverts, terminal portion of tertials, and edges of rectrices bluish ; rump and 
upper coverts pale cerulean blue, tips of the longer-coverts darker; tips of quills and rectrices, with the exception 
of the centrals, brownish black ; inner webs of secondaries, borders of those of primaries, and under wing cinnamon- 
red as in the other species. 
A black facial stripe, narrower than in the last, passing from the gape beneath the eye ; chin and throat rich saffron- 
yellow ; black throat-band bordered beneath with golden yellow ; beneath this the underparts are green, passing 
into pale greenish blue on the lower breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts. 
Young. Birds of the year have the chestnut of the upper surface paler, the throat whitish, the black band ill-defined 
and slightly edged with yellow beneath, the wing-coverts and secondaries margined with blue, and the chest 
greenish blue like the lower parts. The nestlings, which are blind for the first few days, quickly acquire the 
feathers of their first plumage as here described. 
Obs. This species was first made known from Ceylon — that is to say, specimens were sent to Levaillant from there, 
and the bird was named by him, in his work on the ‘ Guepiers,’ the Guepier quinticolor ; but by some oversight he 
gave a plate of the species inhabiting Java, and accompanied it by a description, in which he stated the colour of 
the throat to be “ d’un jaune jonquille, lequel jaune est termine au bas par un collier noir,” making no mention of 
the triangular chestnut throat-patch above the black mark, which character is wanting in the Javan bird, as it 
likewise is in his plate. His plate and description did not therefore apply to the Ceylon bird, nor can Yieillot’s 
name which was founded on the plate. Merops quinticolor accordingly is the Javan bird, and not the Indian. The 
matter has been referred to by the late Mr. Swinhoe aud Lord Tweeddale in the references above given, and 
Mr. Hume gave the Indian bird its present title in his notice of it in ‘ Nests and Eggs,’ as it was without a name. 
Ceylonese examples correspond with Indian and Burmese in size and likewise in coloration of the throat, though 
individuals from any district will differ inter se in this latter respect. One specimen I have examined in the 
British Museum from Madras has a wider black throat-band than any 1 have seen from Ceylon. Pinang specimens 
correspond with Ceylonese. 
Distribution. — This handsome Bee-eater is sparingly dispersed over the island, inhabiting some localities 
