Merops
the typical genus of the family Meropidæ. The bill moderate or long, arched, acuminate, margins entire; tongue narrow, horny at apex; tarsi short; tibiæ denuded above the heel; wings long, tail with two middle feathers elongate. Twenty-one species are known.
M. apiaster is common in the S. of Europe and in Africa. The back is redbrown, the throat yellow with a black margin, breast and belly greenish-blue.
It feeds on insects, especially wasps and bees, which it captures on the wing, like swallows.
MEROSTOMATA (-tom-a-tä), the order of Podostomata, represented by Limulus, the horseshoe or king crab, and a number of fossil forms popularly called in Scotland "seraphims," and known to zoölogists as Eurypterida. The latter resemble scorpions in general appearance, but were marine, some of their feet ending in paddles, while they breathed by gills. The typical forms of the latter group were Pterygotus and Eurypterus.
They flourished in the Palæozoic Age, disappearing during the Carboniferous Period, when the predecessors of the king crab made their appearance.