HISTORY OF THE BEE-EATERS.
Owing to its conspicuous coloration anil to its being a common bird in Southern Europe, the
Bee-eater was well known to t h e early writers on natural history ; but it is scarcely necessary to
trace its history beyond Brisson, who, in 1700, treated of all the then known species under Hie
one generic title Apiaster, which, however, according to our present rules of nomenclature, lias
to give place to Merops of Linmcus. Brisson placed his genus Apias/er near the Kingfishers,
hut separated it from them by the Todies, and ranged it between Todita and Buccros, which latter
he terms llydrocorax. Thirteen species arc enumerated by Brisson under his genus Apiasler, of
which, however, only seven can he included as true Bee-caters, viz. Nos. 1 and 2, Merops (/piaster ;
No. G, Merops bicolor ; No. 7, Merops supcrcUiosus ; Nos. 8 anil S), Merops midis ; No. 11, Meliltophagus
puxillus ; No. 12, Merops phUippinns; and No. 13, MelUlophayus quinlicoior. Nos. 3 and
10 are doubtful, and Nos. t and 5 certainly not Bee-eaters.
Linnauis, in the 12th edition of bis Syst. Nat. (176G), places the genus Merops between
Alcedo (in which he included the Jacamars) and Z'pupa (in which Promerops is included). lie
only includes seven species; but these must be reduced again to three, viz. Merops apiastcr
(Nos. 1 and 3), Merops virhlis (No. 2), and Merops sitperciliosirs (No. •!•). Some years later D'Aubenton,
in the ' Planches Enluminées,' figured two species of Bee-eaters not previously known,
viz. PI. Enl. 252 {Merops bicolor) and Pl. Enl. GI9 (Merops nubiens), but neither of these
received scientific names till some years later.
I n 1773 Pallas, in the Supplement to bis ' Boise im russischen Bcichs,' first described and
named Merops persicus; and in 177G P. L. S. MüIIer, in the Supplement to his 'Natursystem,'
discriminated MeIiffo}dt<rgus pusillns, and at the same time also gave the specific name of americamts
to the species figured by D'Aubenton in the ' Planches Enluminées ' (no. 252), which
name, however, being inapplicable, has to he rejected in favour of bicolor of Boddaert, given in
1783 (Table des Planches Enluminées d'Histoire Naturelle de M. D'Aubenton).
J . G. Gmelin, in 17SS, in the 13th ed. of Linnams's Syst. Nat., enumerates t h e species previously
described, together with several which are not referable to t h e present family, and describes
Merops nubiens, which species is founded on D'Aubenton's plate No. 019 in the 'Planches
Enluminées.' He also describes (p. 4G3), under the name of Merops erythrocephahts, a Bee-eater
which may probably be Melitfopltagus quintico/or ; but the description is not sufficiently clear to
enable his name to he used.
Latham (Ind. Orn.) and Bonnaterre (Tabl. Encycl. et Bféth.) both gave a résumé, in 1700,
of the species previously described ; but neither described any new species or added anything
worthy of note to the literature of this family. In 1703, however, Lichtenstein, in a pamphlet,
now of great rarity (Cat. rer. nat. rariss.), first described the Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, Dicrocercns
hirmidincus ; and though his description is very meagre, yet it is quite clear enough to show that
it is referable to this species. In Shaw and Nodder's ' Naturalist's M iseellany ' (1790-1813) Shaw
describes Melitiophagns gu/uris and Jferops malimbicus, and the following species are figured, viz.
Merops nubiens (pis. 78, G13), Merops apiusler (pi. 102), 2[elilloph(igus gularis (pi. 337), and
Merops malimbieus (pi. 701). On pi. 357 an illustration of a Bee-eater is given which is
not recognizable, and to which be gives the name of Merops erylhrocephaius ; it bears some
resemblance to Meliltophagiis quinlicoior, but cannot be recognized as that species.
Latham, in the Supplement to his Ind. Ora., described Merops ornatus in 1801 ; and fro m
then we pass over a period of five years, without finding anything worthy of note, to 1807,
when Levaillant published his beautiful work ' Histoire Naturelle des Promérops et des Guêpiers,'
in which twenty-one folio illustrations of the Bee-eaters were issued with accompanying letterpress,
but no scientific names were given. All these plates are readily recognizable, except in
the case of Lcvaillant's Guêpier adanson (pi. 13), which is depicted as somewhat resembling
Merops bicolor, but having a red tail; and, so far as I can judge, the plate must have been
drawn from a made-up skin, as no such bird has ever been found by subsequent ornithologists.
I n 1817, Vieillot (Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. vol. xiv.) gave the specific names of albicollis to
Levaillant's Guêpier à gorge blanche ou le Guêpier Cucier (pl. 9), of quinlicoior {MelUiophugu.fi
quinlicoior) to bis Guêpier quinlicoior (pi. 15), of lesehenaultï (Melitiophagns leschenaulti) to his
Guêpier hdehenot (pi. 18), and of hulue'ld {Meliliophoym buUockl) to bis Guêpier à gorge rouge ou
le Guêpier bulock (pl. 20).
Passing over a space of four years, we find Merops sumatranus described by Baffles in 1821
(Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 294), and in 182-1 Temminck (PI. Col. no. 310) figured and described
Xyctiornis amiclus.
Until 1828 the Bee-caters were all included in one and the same genus, that of Merops, but
in that year Boie (Isis, 1828, p. 31G) proposed the generic title of Meliltophagus for the small
Bee-eaters which have the tail even, lacking the elongation on the central rectriees ; and this
genus is one that I consider should stand ; and in the same article Boie also gave the specific
name of sonninito Meliliophayus soiiuiu'd. In 1829 (111. Orn. ii. pi. 58) Jardine and Selby figured
and described Nyetiomis athertoni; and in 1S31-32, Swainson (Zool. 111. 2nd ser. vol. ii.) proposed
the generic title of Nyetiomis for the two large square-tailed Bee-eaters having the
elongated pectoral plumes (V. amiclus and Ar. alherloni), and in the same volume be also gave a
second generic title, Xyctinomus, for the same species, Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, about the
same time, in 1832 (Nouv. Ann. du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. i.), proposing the title of Alcemerops for
this small group ; whereas in 183G (J. As. Soc. Beng. v. p. 360) Hodgson proposed the generic
name of Bncia, and again, in 1841 (J. As. Soc. Beng. x. p. 29), that of Napoph'da, for the same
group. In 1834, Smith (S. Afr. Quart. Journ. 2nd ser. part ii. p. 320) described Melittophafjus
bullockoides, which species was also figured by him in the 111. Zool. S. Afr., Aves, pi. i s.
Gue'rin in 18-43 (Eev. Zool. 1843, p. 322) first gave the generic title of lafresnayei to Melittophagus
lafresnayei, which species was figured in 1847 in the Atlas to Ferret and Galinicr's
'Voyage en Ahyssinie,' pi. 15.
I n 1846 Des Murs (Rev. Zool. 1846, p. 243) separated the Carmine-tliroated Bee-eater from
Jferops iiubicus, with which it had up to then been united, giving the specific name of nubicoides,
which it still retains, to the former. I may here point out a mistake in my synonymy of this
species, for I have inadvertently placed amongst the list of titles that of Merops snperbus, Vieillot
(Nouv. Diet. xiv. p. 23, 1817), which is a synonym of Merops nubiens and not oî M. nubicoides.
I n 1849 Sundevall (OEfv. K. Vet.-Ak. Forh. 1849, p. 1G2) proposed to separate Melittopliagns
gularis from its allies, and to give it the generic title of Meropiscus; but I caunotagrce with him
in so doing, and consider that it ought to be retained amongst those species grouped together
under the genus Meliltophagus. Bonaparte, in his ' Conspectus generum Avium,' i. p. 164,
published in 1850 a description of Forstcn's Bee-eater, which until then bore only the MS. name,
given to it by Teniniinck, of forsteni, which name Bonaparte also retained, and at the same time
very rightly separated it gencrically from its allies, bestowing on it the title of Meropogon.
I n 1S52 Bciehenbach (' Handbuch der speciellcn Ornithologie,' Meropinoe, pp. 61-S3) gave a