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Sharpe, which, though closely allied to Merops cyanophrys, and to extreme forms of Merops virklis, 
and forming, as it were, a link between the two species, is a fairly recognizable and separable species. 
During the progress of the present work several articles on the different species belonging to the 
present family have been issued, amongst which I may cite that from the pen of Dr. Reichenow 
(J. f. 0. 1885, p. 222), who, in pointing out slight differences remarked by him between examples 
of Melittophagus gularis from northern and southern localities, says : — “ In the typical form from 
the Gold Coast, as also in specimens from Liberia, the forehead and a broad superciliary stripe are 
pale cobalt like the rump. Individuals from Angola and the Congo, however, have the frontal 
line blue-green and the superciliary stripe olive-green and but indistinctly defined. Individuals 
from the Gaboon and Cameroons agree with the Angolan examples, except that the superciliary 
stripe is more distinct and blue-green.” This southern race he proposes to call Melittophagus 
gularis australis, and adds that he defers the question as to whether there is a third race of 
Melittophagus gularis, and for the present only proposes to separate the northern and southern 
races, the northern limit of the range of the southern race being, he thinks, the Cameroons. In 
the Niger district he believes that the typical race alone occurs. 
I have not had an opportunity of examining specimens of this Bee-eater from Angola ; but I 
have now before me two examples from Gaboon which differ in no respect from some of the 
specimens I have in my collection from Farit ee, and I have also other specimens from the Gold 
Coast which have the frontal stripe very narrow and tinged with green, and the superciliary line 
but very indistinctly defined and dull in colour, and it therefore appears to me that in all proba- 
bility the Angolan specimens described by Dr. Reichenow will prove to be but younger examples 
of true Melittophagus gularis. 
Still more recently, indeed during the time I have been engaged on the final part of the 
present work, my friend Prof. Wilhelm Blasius, in a most painstaking article on the avifauna of 
Celebes (Madarasz, Zeitschr. fur gesammte Ornithol. iii. p. 239, 1885), proposes to give sub- 
specific rank to a form of Merops philippinus inhabiting Celebes, stating his reasons in extenso, and 
he proposes to call it Merops philippinus, var. celebensis. This form he considers distinct on 
account of its having the back and head darker and more olivaceous than in typical M. philippinus, 
the rufous colour on the throat not being sharply separated from the olivaceous brown of the 
breast, but gradually merging into it, and in having the blue coloration on the abdomen less 
clearly defined. It appears, however, that both this form and typical M. philippinus are found 
together in India, Ceylon, British Burmah, &c., and that the two forms run into each other so much 
that I cannot see any just reason to separate them even subspecifically. Further than this, I have 
before -me a specimen from Celebes which does not at all agree with Prof. Blasius’s description, and 
is undistinguishable from typical Merops philippinus ; and the specimen I have figured, which was 
obtained in Ceylon by Mr. Holdsworth, and received by me from him direct (hence there can be 
no doubt as to the precise locality where it was obtained), agrees most closely with Prof. Blasius’s 
description of his var. celebensis. For these reasons I do not think that his bird is deserving even 
of subspecific rank. 
c 
