front and above the eyes. A collar of black, broadest at the nape, springs from behind the eye on each side, and entirely surrounds the head. The hind part of the neck is of a dirty yellowish white, the upper part of the back, the scapulars, and the principal part of the wings are dusky brown, becoming almost black on the wings, and below the neck-collar. On the lesser coverts is an interrupted oblique bar of white, and the base of the quills is of the same colour, forming a very small spot when the wings are unclosed. In the middle of the wing the feathers have their exterior webs deeply margined with a changeable greenish blue, and their inner webs and tips are dusky. Some few of the tertials have a very pale, almost whitish edge about the tip. The prime quills are white at the base, as noticed above; then nearly black, with a small part of the outer edge greenish blue, and thence to the end dusky brown, the first quill having a very narrow edge of whitish along the outer web. The lower part of the back range and upper tail coverts are dusky, with the ends of the feathers of a glossy pale blue, so that the latter is the only colour visible without displacing the plumage. The tail is of a fine blue, changing into green, according to the light; the inner margin dusky; the shafts pale at the base, and afterwards of a chesnut colour. The general colour of the under parts is whitish, pure on the chin and throat, as well as the under wing coverts and base of all the quills, except the two first secondaries, which, as well as a round spot below the bastard wing, are dusky black. Below the white part the quills are extremely dark, with dusky ends. The feathers on the breast and sides have a very narrow dash of dusky down the shafts. The belly, under-tail coverts, and vent, yellowish white, with a tinge on the last of the same blue which covers the rump. Tha tail is dusky underneath; the claws brown.
No. 18. Merops furcatus.—Fork-tailed Bee-eater.
Length above nine inches; bill black, an inch and a half in length, from the tip to the gape, or rather above one inch to the nostrils; general colour of the plumage bright yellow green, in some lights almost of a golden colour, in others having a chesnut tinge; from the nostrils to the hind part of the head a stripe of black extends, in which the eyes are placed. The chin and throat are vivid yellow, edged all round by a line of blueish green, and bounded below the throat with a straight bar of bright ultramarine blue. The breast is of the same colour with the back, and the rest of the under parts as well as the tail coverts are of a blueish green. The tail is forked; the outer feather being one inch longer than those in the middle, and measuring full three inches long. The tail above is blue or greenish, according to the light; the shafts of the feathers being of a dark chesnut colour, the middle feathers plain coloured, and the outer partaking of the same tinge, with the tips and margin of the interior web dusky. An indistinct sort of dusky bar crosses the ends of the other feathers; but on the fifth pair is hardly visible, except on the inner web; while all except the middle and outer pair of feathers are tipped with white, which becomes deeper on
