Total length four inches. Bill blackish and very sharp. The whole head and forepart of the neck is black. The plumage of the body is a fine reddish-orange, duller on the back and brightest beneath: wing-covers the same; the greater ones at their base black, which forms a bar: the quills are also black, the greater ones having at their base an oblique bar of orange, and some of the lesser ones slightly margined externally with white. Tail divaricated and black; some of the lateral feathers faintly margined with orange. Spurious wings black. Legs and claws brown. The _Bouvreuil de Bourbon_, and the _B. du Cap de Bonne Esperance_ of Buffon (_Pl. Enl. pl._ 204. _fig._ 1, 2.) appear to have been described as the different sexes of one bird (the Orange Grossbeak of Latham) on mere conjecture. I think them quite distinct, inhabiting different countries, and having all the appearance (in the figures) of being two male birds; for the females in this family seldom possess the rich colours of the male; and the figure of the last of these birds, has not the slightest habit of a female. The present genus was formed by Cuvier, (though but very slightly defined,) and includes the common Goldfinch and Canary-bird. * * * * * Pl. 8 [Illustration] MEROPS urica. _Javanese Bee-eater._ * * * * * GENERIC CHARACTER. _Rostrum productum, laeve, subcurvatum, compressum; apice acuto, basi trigono; culmine carinato. Pedes brevissimi, gressorii. Alae attenuatae._ Typus Genericus _M. apiaster_. Linn., &c. Bill lengthened, smooth, slightly curved, terminating in a sharp point; the base triangular, the sides much compressed, the back carinated. Feet very short, gressorial. Wings pointed. Generic Type _Merops apiaster_. Linn., &c. * * * * * SPECIFIC CHARACTER. _M. viridis, infra pallidior; capite, collo supra rufo; mento, jugulo, sulphureis; linea temporali et torque colli nigris; tegminibus uropygioque caeruleis; cauda subfurcata._ Green, beneath paler. Head and neck above rufous; chin and throat sulphur; line under the eyes, and collar round the neck, black. Tail-covers and rump pale blue. Tail slightly forked. Merops urica. _Horsfield in Linn. Trans._ * * * * * The true Bee-eaters are confined to the old world, principally inhabiting Africa and Asia; one species only, the European Bee-eater, being known with any degree of certainty to be found in Europe; and this is occasionally seen in England. They are all gregarious, feeding on the wing, and in general migratory. Most unwillingly I have again in this instance anticipated my friend Dr. Horsfield in describing this bird, which he found in Java, and which I engraved after one sent from Ceylon, without knowing it had also fallen under his observation.