THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
finished his description with the remarks : “ The other feathers of the 
tail chesnnt. This is said to be the male bird ; I met with in it the 
collection of General Davies. In Mr. Lambert’s collection of drawings. I 
observed one of these which I suspect to be the other sex . . . the 
two middle tail-feathers as in the other ; the rest black. . . . Inhabits 
New South Wales, where it is known by the name of Dee-weed-gang ’’ 
When Vigors and Horsfield catalogued the Australian Birds in the 
Linnean Society’s Collection, they described a species as Merops melanurus, 
observing : “ In Dr. Latham’s first description of his Merops ornatus, a 
New Holland species of this genus not in the Society’s collection, a bird 
is alluded to, which was figured in Mr. Lambert’s collection of drawings, 
and whose characters nearly accord with the bird before us. Dr. Latham 
conjectures it to be the female of M. ornatus. In the second edition of 
his work, he repeats the same observation, but does not refer to the 
specimen in the Society’s museum. One of the birds, however, in the 
collection is a male, as we find recorded in Mr. Caley’s notes. Dr. Latham’s 
conjecture respecting sex consequently proves erroneous. And the two 
specimens from which our above description is taken, according in every 
particular with each other, and exhibiting a fine state of preservation, 
are so distinct from M. ornatus, that we cannot consider ourselves 
authorised to come at once to the conclusion that they are varieties of 
that species. The tail of our bird is black, which in M. ornatus is chest- 
nut ; and the fore-part of the head is of the same colour as the back, 
while in Dr. Latham’s bird it is dull orange. (The bird which Mr. Lewin 
has figured in his Birds of New Holland (pi. 2) and which he has 
referred to Dr. Latham’s Merops ornatus, seems rather to belong to 
our species). Both these species differ from the M. viridis of Linnaeus 
by their greater size ; by the throat being orange-yeUow instead of 
blue, and by having a conspicuous longitudinal streak of light blue 
immediately under the black band that passes beneath the eye. The 
rectrices also of the Indian Bee-eater are green above, while in the other 
two species they are either black or chestnut. 
Mr. Caley informs us that the specimens in the Society’s collection 
were brought to him dead : he never had an opportunity of seeing the 
bird in its living state. He was told that it was a bird of passage, 
and bred near the conflux of the Grose with the Hawkesbury River. Its 
nest was said to be in the sandy banks of the river. To one of the 
specimens the following note is appended : “ Iris narrow, crimson : male, 
October 1804.” 
The name ornatus has been constantly associated with this bird, 
210 
i 
