152 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



For the further particulars relating to the closing episodes 

 in the history of this unfortunate pair of birds, I am indebted 

 to official sources of information, and to the enquiries under- 

 taken by my friends, Messrs Richard and R. M. Tomlinson, 

 of Inveresk. 



As regards the fate of the female : on the evening of the 

 nth, Mr Donald Marquis, the gardener to Admiral Sir 

 A. Berkeley Milne, Inveresk Gate, in company with Police 

 Constable Mitchell, observed a bird flutter down from one 

 of the trees in the garden and fall among the grass. It 

 appeared to be in an exhausted or injured condition and it 

 allowed Mr Marquis to pick it up. The bird was at once 

 recognised as a rarity and thought to be a King-fisher, and 

 was put into one of the greenhouses and supplied with water 

 and food. The bird being quite unknown to him, he, on the 

 14th, informed Mr R. Tomlinson, who is much interested in 

 bird-life, what had happened. Mr Tomlinson at once went 

 to see the bird, and Mr Marquis learned from him that it 

 was a Bee-eater and at once supplied the bird with honey 

 bees, but unhappily it died on the following day. The day 

 after its capture the bird laid an egg which was unfortunatel)' 

 broken. At Mr Marquis's request Mr Tomlinson presented 

 the dead bird to the Royal Scottish Museum. 



The mateless male remained in the vicinity until the 15th 

 when it, too, disappeared. It has been stated that the bird 

 had been captured and killed by a cat. This, however, was 

 proved not to be the case, for on interviewing the owner of the 

 cat, Mr R. Tomlinson found that its victim had been buried 

 in the garden. The body was exhumed in Mr Tomlinson's 

 presence and he was gratified to find that it was not the 

 mate of the deceased Bee-eater but an Undulated Grass 

 Parrakeet or Budgerigar {M clop sit tactis undtilatus). 



The female Bee-eater was duly received at the Museum, 

 and was found to be in a very emaciated condition. A 

 careful examination revealed no signs of external injury, 

 nor was there any evidence of wounds or contusions on its 

 body after the skin had been removed. On dissection a 

 full-sized soft-shelled egg was found in the oviduct, and other 

 ova were observed in less advanced stages of development. 



