BEE-EATER.
MEROPS AP I ASTER, Linn
Merops apiaster, Linn. S. N. i. p. 182 (1766) ; Naum. v.
p. 462; Macg. iii. p. 685; Hewitson, i. p. 254; Yarr.
ed. 4, iii. p. 435 ; Dresser, v. p. 155.
Guêpier vulgaire, French ; Europäische Bienenfresser, German;
Abejaruco, Spanish.
The Bee-eater is a somewhat rare straggler to our
islands from the south. In many parts of S. Europe
it is exceedingly common as a summer visitor ; and
Colonel Irby, in his work on the ‘ Ornithology of the
Straits of Gibraltar,’ has given some very interesting
details of the regularity of its annual transit from Africa
to Europe. It abounds in Andalucia and most parts of
Spain south of the great central sierras in summer, and
beeds in holes excavated by itself in almost every bank
soft enough to be bored into, as well as occasionally in
open, uneven, sandy wastes, in a round chamber at the
end of a tunnel of several feet in length. These birds
lay from four to six eggs, of a glossy pure white. The
food of this species consists entirely of flying insects,
and it is very destructive to the honey-bee.