156 M E R 
trees, did yet wither, and occafion every leaf that was 
upon them to fall, unlefs in thofe fpace where villages had 
been, and where water was. In fuch fpots a number of 
large fpreading trees remained full of foliage ; which, from 
their great height and being cleared of underwood, con¬ 
tinued in full verdure, loaded with large, projefling, and 
exuberant, branches. But even here the pleafure that 
their {hade afforded was very temporary, fo as to allow us 
no time for enjoyment. The fun, fo near the zenith, 
changed his azimuth fo rapidly, that every few minutes I 
was obliged to change the carpet on which I lay, round 
the trunk of the tree to which I had fled for flielter ; and 
though I lay down to fleep perfeflly fcreenea by the trunk 
or branches, I was prefently awakened by the violent rays 
of a fcorching fun, the lhade having paffed beyond me. 
In all other places, though we had travelled constantly in 
a foreft, we never met with a tree that could lhade us for; 
a moment, the fire having deprived them of all their 
leaves.” The heat of Atbara is excellive, the thermometer 
having been obferved at 119I 0 : two of Mr. Bruce’s com¬ 
pany died of thirft, or at lealt of the confequences of 
drinking after extreme thirft. The inhabitants live in 
the greatell mifery, and are continually in danger from 
the neighbouring Arabs, who, bydeftroying and burning 
their corn, are able to reduce them to a ftarving condi¬ 
tion. Notwithftanding all their difadvantages, however, 
they have a manufacture of coarfe cotton towels, of a llze 
juft fufficient to go round the waift, which pafs current as 
money throughout the whole country. 
MERO'LA, a river of Naples, which runs into the 1 
Adriatic in lat. 42. 6. N. Ion. 14. 55. E. 
ME'ROM, f. [from the Heb. fignifying an eminence.] 
The name of a place. Jojh. xi. The waters of the Merom, 
at which place Jabin and the other confederate kings met 
to fight Jofhua, are generally fuppofed by the learned to 
he the lake Semechon, which lies between the head of 
the river Jordan and the lake Gennefareth ; fince it is 
agreed on all hands, that the city of Hazor, where Jabin 
reigned, was fituated upon this lake. Jojh. xi. 5-11. But 
others think, that the waters of Merom were fomewhere 
about the brook Kifhon ; and that Meroz , mentioned in 
the account of the battle againft Sifera, the general of 
(another) Jabin king of Hazor, is the fame as Merom; 
for it is more reafonable to luppofe that the confederate 
kings advanced as far as the brook Kifhon, and to a pafs 
which led into the country, to hinder Jofhua from pene¬ 
trating it, or even to attack him in the country where he 
himfelf lay encamped, than to imagine that they waited 
for him in the midft of their own country; leaving all 
Galilee at his mercy, and the whole trad from the brook 
Kifhon to the lake Semechon. Jud. iv. v. 
MER'OPE, in fabulous hiftory, one of the Atlantides, 
or the daughter of Atlas. She married Sifyphus the fon 
of iEolus, and like her filters was changed into a conftel- 
lation after death. It is faid that in the conftellation of 
the Pleiades the liar of Merope appears more dim and ob- 
fcure than the reft, becaufe Ihe, as the poets obferve, mar¬ 
ried a mortal, while her lifters married fome of the gods 
or their defcendants. 
I MER'OPE, in geography, a town of Peru, in the 
diocefe of Truxillo: twelve miles north-weft of Lam- 
bayeque. 
ME'ROPS, jn fabulous hiftory, a king of the ifland of 
Cos, who married Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He 
was changed into an eagle, and placed among the conftel- 
lations.—Alfo a celebrated foothfayer of Percofus inTroas, 
who foretold the death of his fons Adraftus and Amphius, 
who were engaged in the Trojan war. They flighted their 
father’s advice, and were killed by Diomedes. 
ME'ROPS, f. in ornithology, the Bee-eater ; a genus 
of birds of the order of picae. Generic characters—Bill 
curved, quadrangular, compreffed, carinate, pointed; 
noftrils fmall, at the bafe of the bill; tongue ilender, the 
tip (moll commonly) jagged 5 feet greflory. 
There are twenty-nure lpecies at preleut known, befides 
M E R 
varieties: they inhabit chiefly the old continent, but fome 
have been found in the new, particularly and lately in 
New Holland. Their manner of flight, and their habit of 
leizing their prey, when on wing, in fome meafure affuni- 
late them to the fwallow-tribe ; while their gay and vivid 
colours, and their mode of nidification, are more analo¬ 
gous to thofe which are exhibited by the king-filhers. 
1. Merops apiafter, the common bee-eater: back fer¬ 
ruginous ; belly and tail bluifti-green ; two of the tail- 
feathers longer; chin pale-yellow. A variety occurs with 
the bill convex and uncarinated, and the toes uncon¬ 
nected at the laft joint. Bill black ; irides red ; front blue- 
green ; crown, hind-head, and neck, bay ; a black llreak 
from the bill to the hind-head; tail wedged, the feathers 
edged within with cinereous; legschefnut; claws reddilh- 
black. 
This is one of the mod elegant of the European birds; 
and, next to the roller and king-fiflier, may be regarded as 
the moft brilliant in point of colour. This bird is a native 
of the warmer parts of Europe, and of many parts both of 
Alia and Africa. It is rarely feen in the northern regions 
of Europe. In Greece, and among the iflands of the Ar¬ 
chipelago, it feems to be extremely common ; and we are 
told by Belon, that in the ifland of Candia the boys prac- 
tife a curious mode of catching it by means of a cicada, 
or locuft, faftened on a bent pin, or a fifh-hook, and tied 
to a long line ; the infeCt is then thrown into the air, and 
flies with great rapidity, and the bee-eater, ever on the 
watch for infeCts, fprings at it, and, fwaliowing the bait, 
is thus taken. This fpecies has been feen in Sweden; 
and, in the third volume of the TranfaCtions of the Lin- 
naean Society, it is afferted that a flight of thefe birds, not 
lefs than twenty in number, was feen near Mattilhall in 
Norfolk, in the month of June 1793, and again in the fol¬ 
lowing OClober. They feed, on the wing, upon bees, 
gnats, flies, and other infeCts. Their nelt is compofed of 
mofs; and the eggs, from five to feven, are perfectly white, 
and about the lize of thofe of a Hare. When the fun Urines 
upon them, in their flight, they are a pleafing objeCt, as 
they appear gilded. It is recorded by Kolben, the hif- 
torian of the Cape of Good Hope, that bee-eaters guide 
the Hottentots to the honey which the bees lay up in 
clefts of the rocks. 
2. Merops viridis, the Indian bee-eater: green ; band 
and breaft black; chin and tail blue; two of the tail- 
feathers longer. This beautiful bird is accurately de- 
fcribed by two of our moft diftinguifhed ornithologifts, 
Edwards and Albin. It is one-third fmaller than the Eu¬ 
ropean bee-eater, and the two middle quills of its tail are 
much longer and narrower. The front is blue, having a 
large fpot of that colour on the throat, included in a fort 
of black frame formed below by a half-collar like a reverie 
crefcent, and above by a bar which paffes over the eyes, 
and defcends on both lides of the neck, ftretching towards 
the two extremities of the half-collar. The upper furface- 
of the head and neck is orange red; the back, the fmall 
coverts and the laft quills of the wings, are green, like the 
plumage of the parrot; the fuperior coverts of the tail 
are beryl blue ; the breaft and belly light-green ; the 
thighs reddilh brown; the inferior coverts of the tail 
dull green ; the wings variegated with green and orange, 
and terminated with black 5 the tail of a fine green above 
and dark green below ; the two middle quills exceeding 
the lateral ones by more than two inches, and the project, 
ing part deep brown and very narrow; the drafts of the 
quills of the tail very brown, and fo are the legs ; the bill, 
black above, and whitilh below, at its bale. This bird is 
fpread from the coaft of Africa to the moft eaftern of the 
Afiatic iflands. Total length eight inches and three quar¬ 
ters ; of the bill, fifteen lines ; of the tarlus, four lines 
and a half 5 the alar extent ten inches; the ten lateral 
quills of the tail two inches and a half, exceeding the 
wings fourteen lines. This fpecies is reprelented on the 
annexed Plate, at fig. 1. from Edwards’s Birds, vol. iv. 
But there are four other varieties. 
1 0. M. 
