XIX 
America, where it may perhaps be considered to he replaced by the Galbulidse. It is represented 
in the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian Regions, greatly predominating, however, in 
the second. The Palsearctic Region is really inhabited by only four species, though a single 
example of a fifth is recorded as having occurred (but so far from its usual range as to justify its 
being regarded as only an accidental and even a doubtful straggler). Tiie Ethiopian Region, 
including therein Southern Arabia, is inhabited by no fewer than twenty-one out of the thirty-one 
species recognized in this volume ; and of these eighteen , or considerably more than half of the 
whole number, are peculiar to that Region. In the Indian Region eleven species are met with, 
of which four are peculiar to its continental portion, and those are common to the Palsearctic 
and Ethiopian Regions, while two are peculiar to its islands. The Australian Region includes 
only three species — one widely distributed, the other two restricted to the remarkable island of 
Celebes, one of them forming the type of a distinct genus, Meropogon. Of the other genera, 
Nyctiornis is confined to the Indian Region, Dicrocercus to the Ethiopian, and Melittophagus 
inhabits both in common ; while Merops has more or fewer representatives in all four Regions. 
The precise distribution of the Bee-eaters may be more plainly exhibited by the subjoined 
Table (p. xx). 
