100 
Adult male (Zambesi).— General colour aboyc and below deep parrot-green, becoming golden 
in tinge in some lights on tlic crown and nape ; chin and upper throat rich yellow, a broad line 
through the eyes, extending far back, deep black ; forehead, a broad band across the throat, and 
the upper and under tail-coverts with a portion of the lower abdomen rich dark blue ; quills 
chestnut externally tinged with greenish, the primaries slightly tipped and the secondaries 
broadly terminated with black ; elongated inner secondaries coloured like the back, but tinged 
with blue; central rectrices deep sky-blue, remaining tail-feathers dull green washed with blue, 
subterminally marked with blackish, most being tipped with white ; bill black ; feet dull blackish 
brown ; iris deep red. Total length about 7 \ inches, culmen T3, wing 3' 6, tail 4T, tarsus 0 4 ; 
tail deeply forked, the outer tail-feathers extending T5 beyond the central ones. 
Adult female (Kabaconeri, 7th July). — Differs but slightly from the male in having the 
throat of a paler yellow tinge, the lower abdomen and under tail-coverts of a paler blue and 
tinged with green, the forehead scarcely tinged with blue, and the upper parts rather duller 
in tinge. 
Young ( fide Heuglin). — Duller than the adult, throat dull bluish green, the blue band across 
the throat wanting, the abdomen more of a bluish-green tinge. 
This Bee-eater, so easily distinguishable from any other species by its conspicuously forked tail, 
inhabits Africa, on the eastern side from Abyssinia and the Gpper Nile, and on the western side 
from Senegal down to the Cape Colony. First recorded by Lichtenstein (Cat. rer. nat. rariss. 
p. 21) in 1793, it was obtained by Salt near Adowa in 1810, and by Stanley described in Salt’s 
Journey (l. c.) under the name of Merops furcatus. Nothing further appears to have been 
recorded respecting it during an interval of fifty years, when Antinori met with it on the White 
Nile in 1860; and Yon Heuglin states ( l . c.) that he first heard of its presence in the country of 
the Schilluk Negroes, inl2°-14°N. lat., from the travellers Barthelcmy and De Pruyssenaere, and 
subsequently obtained both young and old birds in Wan, Bongo, and on the Kosanga in April, 
August, September, and October. Hartmann says that it arrives early in February in the 
Djurland (where it is known by the name of “ Adid ”) and remains until early in April, when it 
disappears altogether. When passing they are in full breeding-plumage, but soon lose it, as pairs 
which he shot on the 19th April in the forests of the Dor were not so brilliantly coloured as those 
he obtained in May. This species frequents overgrown places, and often hunts for food on the 
edges of forests of high trees, especially near the negro huts, where insect life is abundant. It is 
very fond of honey, and it is seldom that its beak is not smeared with it. Antinori never saw 
flocks of more than from eight to ten individuals. Chapman (teste Layard) met with it on the 
Zambesi, and Mr. Nicholson (P. Z. S. 1878, p. 355) received it through Mr. Buxton from Darra- 
Salam, opposite Zanzibar. 
On the west side of the continent it is recorded from Goree by Prof. Barboza du Bocage ; 
there are specimens in the Bremen Museum from Gambia ; and Swainson records it from Senegal, 
Yerreaux from Casamanze, Ferguson from Sierra Leone, Pel from Asliantee, Roux from Grand 
Bassam, Gujon from St. Thome, Du Chaillu from the Gaboon, Monteiro from Benguela, and 
Professor Barboza du Bocagc received it from Humbe through Anchieta, who states that he met 
