56 
PICARIAN BIRDS. 
Ceiebean In the island of Celebes is found a peculiar species (Mesopogon 
Bee-Eater, forsteni), characterised by having the two central tail-feathers 
elongated, as in the genus Merops, but with a bunch of overhanging plumes on 
the breast. The colour of the bird is green, the quills being dusky at the ends, 
the central tail-feathers green, but the rest chestnut with green edges; the head, 
throat, and breast are deep ultramarine; the hind-neck maroon - brown; the 
abdomen dusky blackish washed with green; under tail-coverts chestnut with 
green margins; the total length is 13 inches. The species is only found, according 
to Dr. Meyer, in dense forests difficult of access, where it inhabits the highest trees, 
and has the manners and ways of other bee-eaters. 
BLUE-BEARDED BEE-EATER (£ liat. size). 
The Bearded The two species constituting the genus Nyctiornis are distin- 
Bee-Eaters, gffished not only by the tufts of feathers on the breast, but also 
by the squared tail and densely feathered nostrils. The blue-bearded bee-eater 
(iV ashertom) is an Indian bird, extending east to Siam, but replaced in Tenasserim 
and the Malay region by the scarlet-bearded bee-eater (K amicta), a beautiful 
species with the long feathers of the throat scarlet instead of blue, and the fore¬ 
head hlac instead of bluish green. This species is said by Mr. Whitehead to be 
air y common m parts of Borneo, frequenting the high forest, where it sits 
solitary on the lower boughs of trees, making short flights after insects. Although 
there is one statement, as to its eggs having been taken from a tunnel, the 
b . eai p ded bee - eater 1S believed to nest in holes in trees, having been seen to 
iiy out ot such cavities in Tenasserim. 
