INDIAN
B.
D escription..
Mërops viridis, Lin. Syjî. i. p. 182. N° 2.
Ifpida viridis fupra ferruginea, OJb. Voy. i. p. 147.
.Gueipier à collier de Madagafcar, Brif. orn. iv. p. 549* N° 8. pl. 42* 3»
- — PI. enl, 740.
rLe Guêpier vert à gorge bleue, Buf. oif vi. p. 4971
Indian Bee-eater, Edw» iv. pl. 183.— Gen. of Birds, p. 60. pl. 7.
*t <h i s floes not exceed a Sparrow in fize, but is longer in the
body : length eight inches and three quarters. Bill thirteen
lines and a half long, and black : the upper parts of the body are
green gold : the upper tail coverts the fame, but inclining to
blue : the under parts of the body are green, changing to blue
under the throat : on each fide of the head is a black band,
from the bill palling under the eyes : beneath the throat is another
band of the fame, like a collar : under the wings fulvous :
quills moftly green, with the inner webs more or lefs fulvous, and
beneath chiefly cinereous, and tipped with black: tail green
above; the fide feathers edged with cinereous on the inner
webs ; the two middle ones above two inches longer than the
others ; and, as far as they exceed them in length, are very narrow,
and blackifh ; the webs of all of them are brown above, and
whitifh beneath : the legs and claws are brown.
That defcribed by Edwards has the forehead, cheeks, and
throat, blue : breaft and belly light green : hind part of the head
and neck orange red : between the blue and green on the breaft
is a black crefcent, and a black ftroke through the eyes : back
and wing coverts parrot green : rump blue green : greater quilb
black ; the middle ones orange, bordered with green, and fpotted
with black within the tips, which are orange.
Inhabits
Inhabits Bengal.
Mr. OJbeck mentions one not unlike the above, which came from
Java, where it was met with alive, but died after a confinement
of a few days.
Le Guefpier a collier de Bengale, Brif. orn. iv. p. 552.. g,
Bengal Bee-eater, Albin. iii. pl. 30.
PJJFFON thinks this to be the very fame bird with the other,; D
but by the defcription it is faid to be two inches and a half
longer, being in total length eleven inches and a quarter ; and it
differs too from Brijfon's, in having the forehead blue, in this being
more like that defcribed by. Edwards, and molt likely is a mere
variety of that bird.
Merops Ægyptius, Forfch. Faun. Arab. p. 1. N° 2.
'J 'H IS may perhaps prove a fecond variety; for it is exprefly- jjx
faid not to belong to the firft fpecies. The only defcription
given is, that the bird is wholly of a green colour : that the throat
is yellow : the bill black and ftraitifh : tongue bidentated : tail
feathers twelve in number, and even at the end : legs of a flefh-
colour.
This, he fays, is met with in Egypt, and that the young are
Ibid in the month of June. The Arabian name is Cbaddajr.