90 
the tip, the terminal portion blackish in colour ; under surface of the wing pale fox-red ; bill 
black; legs blackish brown; iris red. Total length about 12 inches, culmen 1*6, wing 5'85, 
tail 7-5, tarsus 0-45 : central rectrices extending about 3^ inches beyond the lateral ones ; first 
and second wing-quills nearly equal and the longest. 
Young . — Resembles the adult, hut is rather duller in colour and the central rectrices are not 
elongated. 
Ohs. So far as I can ascertain from the specimens I have examined, the sexes do not differ 
in coloration, and in the entire series the difference in measurements is very trifling, viz. culmen 
1-3 to 1-6, wing 5-6 to 6-0, and tail 6'5 to 7*6, the variation in the length of the tail being chiefly 
owing to the difference in the development of the central feathers. The coloration of the throat 
differs also not a little ; for in some examples the blue is very broadly margined below with black, 
whereas in others there is scarcely any trace of the black margin, and, as a rule, these latter are 
the smaller birds, though some of them have the central rectrices very long, and it may therefore 
possibly he a sexual difference. 
The range of the present species extends over the northern portions of Tropical Africa. On the 
west side of the continent it occurs from Senegal down to Bissao, and on the east side from the 
coast-lands of Abyssinia down to Zanzibar, being replaced in Southern Africa by its ally Merops 
nubicoides. There are specimens in the Leiden Museum from Senegal, and in the British Museum 
from the river Gambia. Yerreaux records it from Casamanze ; Forbes met with it on several 
occasions on the Niger ; and I have examined examples from Bissao, below which I do not find 
any instance of its occurrence on record. On the east side of the continent it is recorded from 
Abyssinia by Mr. Blanford, who, however, says (l. c.) that he only once saw it, when a large 
number were collected about one shot close to the hot spring of Atfeh, on the shores of Annesley 
Bay, where Mr. Jesse met with it once. Yon Heuglin writes that it is “an inhabitant of the 
warmer portions of Abyssinia, ascending to an altitude of 6000-7000 feet. We found it common in 
Takar, Senaar, Kordofan, and along the White Nile.” Von Hartmann says (l. c.) that “ one sees 
it in Nubia from 16° N. lat. to Kordofan, Senaar, and on the White Nile to the Equator.” 
Dr. Fischer records it (J. f. O. 1879, p. 283) as observed in large numbers in June, north of 
Mimbrui, on a pasture covered with mimosa trees, and he also met with it at Ngau on the river- 
hanks. I am uncertain as to how far it ranges down in East Africa ; but Messrs. Finsch and 
Hartlaub say (l. c .) that according to Yon der Decken it is supposed to occur as far south as 
Zanzibar. 
Writing respecting the habits and nidification of this species in North-east Africa, Hartmann 
says that it is found throughout the year in large flocks, which increase in size during the 
nesting-season. He met with it in March 1861, where the Amolmul river passes through the 
south-eastern part of the Djurland, in a flock of about a thousand individuals, which left the river- 
bank where they were nesting, circled about in the air for a time, and then returned again to the 
steep river-banks, which they literally carpeted, so that they were coloured with red, green, and 
blue, and made a lovely picture. Antinori tried to obtain their eggs; but the numerous nest- 
holes were in the high banks far above the water, and so deep that a two-metre long negro’s lance 
