MEROPS BOEHMI. 
BUFF-HEADED GKEEN BEE-EATEE. 
Merops ( Mdittophagus ) boehmi, Reichenow, Orn. Centralblatt, April 1882 ; id. J. £. Orn. 1882, p. 233. 
Merops dresseri , Shelley, Proe. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 303. 
Figures notabiles. 
Shelley, P. Z. S. 1882, pi. xvi. j Reichenow, J. fur Orn. 1882, tab. ii. fig. 3. 
Hab. Bumi district, East Central Africa ( Boehm, ) ; Rovuma river, E. Africa {Thomson). 
Ad. Psittacino-viridis, capite, nucha et gula rufescenti-cinnamomeis, hac dilutiore : stria per oculum dneta nigra 
et subtus azureo marginata : cauda et alis viridibus, ilia nigro apicata, rectricibus centralibus elongatis et 
attennatis, apicibus nigris : remigibus intus cinnamomeo marginatis et nigro apicatis : subalaribus dilute 
cinnamomeis : rostro et pedibus nigris : iride rubra. 
Adiblt (Rovuma river). — Crown, upper throat, and nape warm rufous buff, some of the 
feathers having the tips washed with greenish yellow ; upper parts generally parrot-green ; wings 
green, the primary quills terminated with dusky blackish, the secondaries rather broadly tipped 
with black, except the inner ones, which with the scapulars and upper tail-coverts are slightly 
washed with blue on the terminal portions ; tail green, the two central rectrices much elongated 
and attenuated, the narrow portion being blackish; rest of the rectrices broadly terminated with 
black, and narrowly tipped with white on the outer ones, and rather more broadly with blue 
towards the central pair ; a broad black band passes through the eye, and is margined below with 
turquoise-blue ; underparts parrot-green, the abdomen and under tail-coverts washed with blue ; 
under wing-coverts and the basal portions of the inner margins of the quills pale rufescent buff ; 
under portion of the tail greyish brown, the black terminal band showing very distinctly; bill 
and legs black ; iris red. Total length about 9 inches, culmen T3, wing 3T, tail 5 - 5, central 
rectrices extending 2'6 beyond the lateral ones, tarsus 0 - 4. 
Ohs. The type specimen, which was kindly entrusted to me for examination by the late 
Dr. Peters of Berlin, agrees with the above, but lacks the elongated central rectrices, and 
measures — culmen 1-25, wing 3 - 3, tail 3'0 ; the third and fourth quills are equal and are the 
longest, the second is 0 - 2 shorter than the third, the first 095 shorter than the fourth, and the 
sixth 04 shorter than the fifth. 
This interesting species, so nearly allied to, yet so thoroughly distinct from, Merops viridis, is, up 
to the present time, known only from two specimens, one of which was obtained by Dr. Boehm in 
