MEROPS MUSCATENSIS. 
BLUE-BROWED GREEN BEE-EATER. 
Merops mnscatensis, Sharpe, Ibis, 1886, p. 15. 
Figure. nulla. 
IIab. Muscat. 
Ail. corpore suprh si cut in M. viridi eolorato, seel stria frontali et superciliari pallide viridi-cserulea : guli et gutture 
sicut in M. cyanophriji coloratis, sed paullo pallidioribus et elarius coloratis : plaga nigra minore : abdomine 
si cut in M. viridi, sed magis cseruleo tincto : rostro nigro : pedibus sordide plumbeis : iride scarlatinA. 
Adult. — Upper parts as in Merops viridis, lout with a narrow frontal and superciliary stripe of 
a pale greenish-blue colour ; throat and breast as in Merops eyemophrys, but the blue on the 
throat is rather clearer and lighter in tinge of colour, is rather less extended, and the black patch 
is somewhat smaller ; rest of the underparts as in Merops viridis, but somewhat more tinged with 
blue; beak black; legs dull dark plumbeous; iris bright red. Total length about 6- 75 inches, 
culmen IT 2, wing 3'6, tail 3’9, tarsus OT: central rectrices extending 07 beyond the lateral 
ones. 
Just as I had sent to the printers the last batch of MS. for the present work, my friend 
Mr. E,. Bowdler Sharpe wrote asking me to come and see an apparently new Bee-eater which had 
been sent to the British Museum from Muscat by Ool. Miles. I at once took my two specimens 
of Merops eyemophrys for comparison, and found the bird in question to be a fairly good species, 
exactly intermediate between Merops viridis and Merops eyemophrys. Mr. Sharpe has named it in 
the January number of £ The Ibis ’ for 1886, and a detailed description will be given by him in 
the April number of that periodical. Compared with Persian examples of Merops viridis and my 
two specimens of Merops eyemophrys , the present species agrees with the former in the coloration 
of the upper parts and abdomen, but it has a clearly defined narrow greenish-blue frontal and super- 
ciliary stripe, and the central rectrices are much shorter and blunter. It agrees more closely with 
Merops eyemophrys in the coloration of the throat and breast, but the blue is rather paler and 
clearer and the black patch is smaller. In size it agrees more closely with M. viridis than with 
