Figures notabiles.
Lcvaill. Hist. Nat. Gut>p. pis. 6, 6 bis, 10 & 19 ; Savigny, Hist. Nat. Egypte, pi. 1. fig. 3 ; IJrcc, B. of Eur. in.
pi. to p. 1 0 2 ; Shelley, B. of Egypt, pi. vii. fig. 1 ; Dresser, B. of Eur. v. pi. 296.
HAB. Southern portion of the "Western Pahrarctie llogion. the Ethiopian Itegion, the south-vfestern portion of
the Eastern Pal scare tic Kegioii, and it ranges just into the Indian Region.
Ad. supril hetc psittaciiio-viridis : froute albida, post ice cirriilcscente : superciliis ct striasubuculari ia>iu h* scent ibus,
hue supra alho marginatil: tauiia per oculum nigra : uropygio et supracaudalibus cau'ulesceuti tinctis : mcuto
flavo: gulA saturate rufa: peetorc ct abdomitic cwrulcscrnti-viridihus : subalarihus pallida fcrrugiueis;
rcmigibns uigricanti apieatis ; rcctricibus duabus centralibus clongatis ct uigricanti apieatis : rostro nigro :
pedibus fuscis : iride coccinca.
Juv. supra saturate cieruleo-virid is, phimis vix pallidum* marginatis : rcctricibus contralibus vis clongatis: ltnea
frontali nulla, et supcrciliis indistinct i s : mcuto pallide flavo-cervino; gula sordide cinnamomca: corpora
rcliquo suhtus pallide eaTulco-viridi, ahdomiue ccutrali alhicante.
Adult male (Egypt).—Forehead and a broad superciliary stripe turquoise-blue, but the
forehead at the base of the bill is white; upper parts deep parrot-green, becoming bluish green
on the upper tail-coverts, and on the wings and tail tinged with russet; quills tipped with black
and on the iuner web margined with sooty brown; a broad black band passes from the gape
through the eye to the car, and is narrowly margined below with white, below which there is a
broad turquoise-blue stripe; chin dark yellow; throat fox-red; tmderparts generally deep parrotgreen
; under wing-eoverts and under surface of the wings dull rufous; under surface of the tail
blackish grey; bill black ; legs dark browu; iris crimson. Total length about 11 inches, cuhnen
1-8, wing 6*1, tail 6, central rcctrices extending 2'1 beyond the lateral ones, tarsus 0 5 .
Adult female (Egypt).—Closely resembles the male.
Young (Shiraz, Persia).—Upper parts dark bluish green, much darker than in the adult, the
feathers with paler margins; central rectrices scarcely longer than the lateral ones ; the frontal
blue and white stripes wanting, and the superciliary blue stripe hut faintly indicated; the black
check-stripe margined below with bluish white; chin pale yellowish buff; throat dull light
russet; rest of the underparts pale blue-green, becoming very pale on the centre of the abdomen.
A f r i c a appears to be the true home of this Bee-eater, where it is widely distributed ; and though
it is found in the countries north of the Mediterranean, it is there only met with but rarely, oías
an occasional straggler. Crespón states that two examples were killed, in May 1832, near the
mouth of the Lez, in the department of Hérault, in Southern France ; and according to M. Adrien
Lacroix (Cat. Ois. Pyr. Franc, p. 273), one was obtained on the 3rd of May, 1859, near La
Nouvelle, in Aude, and he subsequently received one from Cette. In Italy it is of very rare
occurrence. The Marquis Durazzo records the occurrence of two which wore obtained ncar
Genoa in 1831, one of which is now in the University Museum of that town, and the other in
that of Florence ; and Professor Giglioli states (' Ibis,' 1881, p. 191) that one was shot at Bari
"some years ago." Accordmg to Malherbe (Fauu. Orn. Sic. p. 141), a female was shot near
Palermo, in Sicily, which he saw; hut both Doderlein and Benoit doubt this occurrence. Schembrl
states that one was killed in Malta in September 1810 ; but Mr. C. A. Wright remarks that all
trace of this specimen has been lost. This latter gentleman, however, posses'ses a specimen which
he says was " killed at the end of May 1871, at the Inquisitor's Palace, Malta, by F. Camilleri,
barber of the Central Hospital, out of a flock; but whether of the same or of the common kind
(J/, apiaster) he could not say. He was first attracted by its note, which was different from any
he had heard before.
I t is included amongst the birds of Greece by both Lindermayer and Von der Muhlc, who
say that they have on several occasions found it exposed for sale in the Athens market amongst
common Bec-eaters; and Erhard records it from the Cycladcs as a " summer visitant," under
which heading he includes the birds which breed in those islands. Dr. Kriiper also states that a
small flock of these Bee-eaters was seen in Greece on the 19th of April, 1874, out of which four
specimens were obtained.
In Southern Bussia it is of very rare occurrence. Professor von Nordmanu observed it twice
near Odessa, and according to Hencke (Ibis, 1883, p. 210) six examples were once obtained at
the mouth of the Volga late in May. Canon Tristram met with this Bee-eater near Herejik, in
Armenia, and writes (Ibis, 1882, p. 414), " I was delighted to find here, for the first time in anv
numbers, a colony of the Persian Bee-eater (Jferops prrsicus), not so numerous as X. apiaster,
but still plentiful. The habits of the two species are markedly different when seen together.
M. peraicus is by no means shy, and perches much more frequently than the other, settling on
low trees, and frequently on the top of a thistle-tuft." Canon Tristram shot one in the Jordan
Valley in 1S5S, and Mr. Cochrane, who accompanied him on his second journey, saw a flock near
nebron. I may also here state that i t has been obtained at Beyrout, in Syria.
In North-east Africa the present species is very common. Captain Shelley says that it is
" t h e most abundant of the Bee-eaters in April. It arrives in the country about a fortnight
earlier in the spring than Me raps apiaster." Mr. E. C. Taylor saw the first at Bcnisouef on the
26th of March, after which time they became plentiful. They were, he adds, very tame and
much given to perching on telegraph-wires. Von Heuglin writes (/. c.):—" In the latter days
of March, and usually before M. apiaster arrives, small flocks of this species appear on passage
in Lower Egypt, and frequent fields, gardens, and fig-plantations, on the edge of the desert,
the dunes, or in meadows, and usually leave after a sojourn of a few days, to return again in
hundreds in June and July, when they often collect together, several hundred in a flock, and
are seen chiefly in the olive-gardens, and on tamarisks and acacias along the canals. In the
morning they remain where they have roosted, utter their cab-note in a low tone, and about nine
o'clock eollcct in flocks, and spread over the fields and in the villages, uttering loud cries. Their
flight is Swallow-like, but irregular, and one or two leave the flock and circle round catching insects,
which are devoured either on the wing or when seated on a branch at the top of a tree. During
the heat in the middle of the day they rest for a time; and I never saw a Bee-eater go to drink.
In the evening they collect together and, uttering their note noisily, go to roost. In the summer
they are very fat, and numbers are killed and eaten by the Italian and Greek gunners. Late in
August one meets flocks of this Bee-eater on passage in Nubia, East Sudan, and Abyssinia ; but
they do not winter here, but migrate further in a southerly or south-westerly direction. On the
17th of October, 1857, I found the Avieennid-thickets on Borne of the islands on the Somali
coast covered with Bee-eaters and Boilers, which evidently came thero after the flocks of locusts.
Brelnn surmised correctly that this species breeds in May, in Central and Lower Egypt; for I