/
MEROPS API ASTER, Unn.
Bee-eater.
Merops (/piaster, Linn. Mus. Ad. Fr., tom. ii. p. 21.
— chrysocephalus, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 463.
scheegliagha, Forsk. Faun. Arab., 1.
hungarice, Brehm, Vög. Deutsch!., tom. i. p. 146, tab. xi. fig. i.
T h e members of the family Meropidx or Bee-eatersl so widely distributed over the Old World, are
remarkable for the elegance of their forms and the gaiety of their colouring. Those consenting the
restricted genns Merops are seven in number-, of these, two, M. apiastcr and M. MgppUus,
inhabit Europe and Egypt, and extend their range westward to Affghanistan; M. H | g g p g * “
the whole of India, Southern China, Formosa, Flores, and T imor; and M. mruhs is common ,n Burmah
and Siam ; M. Incolor is peculiar to the Malayan provinces ; M. H M U f i « a native of the Indo-Chinese
countries, Southern India, and Ceylon, and M. ormtus of Australia and the Papuan, Islands.
Many of these bedutiful birds are migratory, or at least change their locae according to the
seasons'; the species here represented passes the greater portion of its life m the light ethereal air
of subtropical regions, and the .azure-blne skies of Greece, Italy, and Span, arc far more con-
genial to its habits and economy than the cold blasts of more northern countries ; its occurrence
in the British Islands, however, has been sufficiently frequent to entitle it to a place in our ailfauna.
During the last century nearly fifty have been recorded as having been shot ,n Eiiglamh
and one or two in Ireland. The following are the instances enumerated by the late Mr Yarrell . -O .
at Kingsgate, in the Isle o f T hauet; another at Godalming, in Surrey ; a third at Christchurch, in Hamp-
shire ; a fourth at Chidcock, in Dorsetshire; three in Devonshire ; four I the parish of Modern, u, Co g
wall - a flock of twelve near Helston, in the same county, of which eleven were killed; four or fiie in
Snffo’lk and Norfolk; add a few others, the localities of which are not mentioned. Since the completion ot Mr
Farrell's work, others hare from time to time made their appearance; these like then predecessors, must In, e
been driven out of their regular route of migration, and alighted in England, the first land they came to. One
„H most recent occurrences is recorded in the ■ Zoologist' for June 1866. Mr. George Harding, junior, the
states that four specimens were shot near Bristol during the first week of the preceding BBS and remarks
that when first observed “ thev were hawking for bees round a number of frn.t-trecs m blossom ian n
the neighbourhood of a number of beehives ; at one moment soaring in circles at a great height and at the
next darting With velocity' after their prey, which was ' often apparently some of the larges spe ies of
Bombus * when one of these was caught, it was carried for half a minute or more at the point of the g g
m d riie n with a sudden and peculiar turn of the head and neck, swallowed entire. At other times tb
birds sat upon the dead branches of a large elm and of a cherry-tree, whence they made short excursions
after hees flying past or gathering round the fruit-flowers, sometimes returning to the same pe cl, like
flycatcher, bn. more often circling round for a short time before settling. The bees appeared to be always
swallowed while the birds were on the wing.”
So much information respecting the habits and economy of this bird has been recorded by the Rev
Mr. Tristram, Mr. Stafford S. Allen, and others, ih -T h e Ibis,' that it ,s but fair to those accurate
observers to give a transcript of it in their own words. .
-T h e Bee-eater,” says Mr. Tristram, in his account of the Ornithology of Palestine, “ appeared sin.nl-
taneously in large flocks, and remained more or less gregarious throughout the summer ,n every part of
the country. I t does not frequently perch, but remains for hours on the wing, skimming, swallow-like up
nd down a nullah or wady” or systematically ranging and quartering a barley-plain in pumuit of .„sects
on the wing Seen athwart the sunbeams as they passed overhead, their colour has the appearance of
burnished crnper They feed as well as breed in colonies, preferring low banks to the steeper declivities,
and seeming to rely for protection against lizards and other enemies on the structure and turnings of their
dwellings rather than on their position. I have taken the eggs from a nest in the side of a low sand mo,in,
on the plain, out of which I startled the bird by riding over its hole.
H h k s
L be found; but as the female continues to sit, the debris of her meals becomes heaped around her,