4 
BEE-EATER. 
Mountain Bee-eater Lewin, Birds Austr., pi. n., 1808 ; id., Birds New South Wales, 
pi. ir., 1811. 
Philemon ornains Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., Vol. XXVII., p. 423, 1818. 
Merops tenuipennis on M. thouini Dumont, Diet. Sei. Nat. (Levrault), Vol. XX., p. 52, 
1821 : New South Wales. 
Merops melanurtis Vigors and Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soe. (Lond.), Vol. XV., p. 208, 1827 : 
New South Wales. 
Merops lewini “ Aliq ” Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. I., p. 162, 1850 ; nom. nud. 
M elittophagus ornatus Reiehenbaeh, Handb. Merop., p. 82, 1852. 
Urica ornata Bonaparte, Consp. Vol. Aniso, 1854, p. 8. 
Cosmaerops ornains Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., Vol. II., p. 138, 1860. 
? Merops modestus Oustalet, Bull. Hebdom. Assoe. Sei. Fr., Vol. XXI., p. 248, 1878 ; 
D’Urville Island, New Guinea. 
Merops ornatus ornatus Mathews, Nov. ZooL, Vol. XVIII., p. 290, 1912. 
Merops ornatus shortridgei Mathews, ih., Strelly River, West Australia. 
Cosmaerops ornatus ornatus Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 150, 1913. 
Cosmaerops ornatus shortridgei Mathews, ih. 
Distribution. Australia : not Tasmania. 
Adult male. Fore-part of head and erown, hind-neek, upper baek, upper wing-coverts, 
innermost secondaries and scapulars grass-green, rather brighter on the last with 
rufescent bases to the feathers ; lower back, rump, and upper tad-coverts pale 
blue with blackish bases to the feathers, outer-webs of primary-quills green, inner- 
webs and secondary-quills, except the innermost, rufous with black tips to both 
series of quiUs ; tail black with blue on the outer-webs of the outermost pair of 
feathers, the middle pair of feathers shghtly tinged with blue at the base, those 
feathers are much extended beyond the others, and have a spatule at the ends ; nape 
and sides of hinder crown rufous, as are also the sides of the fore-neck and lower 
throat; a supraloral streak of bright bluish-green; lores, a line below the eye, 
and ear-coverts black like the triangular patch on the fore-neck ; a pale blue line 
along the cheeks ; chin and upper throat lemon-yeUow ; breast and abdomen 
grass-green becoming blue on the vent and under tail-coverts where the feathers 
are white at the base instead of black as on the abdomen ; axillaries, under wing- 
coverts, and quiU-hning pale cinnamon rufous, tips of quills below brown, a narrow 
lino of green, composed of short feathers, along the margin of the wing below ; lower 
aspect of tail blackish. Eye red ; feet dark grey, bill black. Total length 265 mm. ; 
culmen 32, wing 110, tail 131, tarsus 9. Figured. Collected at Napier Broome 
Bay, North-west Australia, on the 5th of May, 1910. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but the colours not so pronounced. 
Immature. Like the adult female, but duller in aU the markings, tail-feathers equal ; no 
black throat or golden yeUow on the back of the head. 
Nest. A tunnel in the side of a bank. 
Eggs. Clutch, five to seven, white and shiny, 21-22 mm. by 18. 
Breeding-season. October to January. 
In the Second Supplement to his General Synopsis of Birds, Latham 
described the Variegated B(ee) E(ater) and gave a plate of it. He 
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