49 
part of Pantee and tlie Gold Coast. It can always be observed in tbe vicinity of Cape Coast, 
especially about bush-paths and hollow roads towards evening, when it may occasionally be seen 
to collect in large numbers, hawking after insects, and occasionally resting on bushes or low 
branches of large trees. I have never seen the Bee-eater alone, and should consider it decidedly 
gregarious. It has no especial peculiarity in its habits to distinguish it.” 
Dr. Beichenow met with it on the Cameroon river on tbe river-banks and in the steppes, and 
DuCliaillu and Walker obtained it on the Gaboon. Professor Barboza du Bocage remarks that 
though included, on the authority of Henderson, in the avifauna of Angola, it has not been obtained 
there by any of the recent collectors. 
In habits this Bee-eater does not appear to differ from its allies. Like them it is gregarious, 
frequenting river-banks and wooded localities ; and Dr. Beichenow observed it on the Cameroon 
river wandering about in large flocks, passing high up in the air and remaining in the localities 
it selects for hunting-purposes in the high trees. According to Dr. Hartmann, it breeds on the 
Nile in September, making its nest in holes in the river-banks ; and its eggs are, he says, like those 
of Herops nubicus, wax-coloured, unspotted, and measured 21 by 15 mm. 
The specimens figured are in my own collection, the adult male being the bird above 
described. 
In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 
E Hus. II. E. Dresser. 
a,b,c. Evict, Abyssinia (Ester), d, $ . Kordofan, 11th May. e,f. Fantec (Aubinn). g, Ji. Fantee. i. Connor’s 
Hill, Fantec, 1870 ( Ussher) . k. Abyssinia. 
E Hus. Brit. 
a, $ • Bairo, 13th August, 1868 {Jesse), b , ? . Ain, 16th August, 1868 (Jesse), c, $ d, $ . Eairo, 13th August, 
1868 ( Blanford ). e, J. Ivoomaylee, 5th June, 1868 (. Blanford ). f. Darfur, g. Abeokuta (Nicholson), 
h, juv. Nile below Khartoum (Petherick). i, k. Mombas. I, in. West Africa (Col. Sabine). n. Eylet 
(Esler). o. Fantee (Ussher). p. Gaboon {Walker), q. Gaboon (DuChaillu). 
E Mus. I wee (Male. 
a , $ • Bail- 0 , Abyssinia, 13th August, 1868 {Jesse), b , ? . Ivoomaylee, 5th June, 1868 (Jesse), c, juv. Gaboon 
(DuChaillu). 
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