148 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



along the Bar-El-Wady, doubtless nesting in its steep 

 mould banks. 



A hen bird, shot on the loth of May, was of a very re- 

 markable blue tint. If it had not been paired with a cock 

 of the ordinary colour, I should have set it down as a dis- 

 tinct species. It is probably this variety of hue which has 

 gained the Blue-cheeked Beeeater and the Little Green 

 Beeeater so many cognomens. 



35. Beeeater, Merops apiaster, Linn. 



First seen on the 19th of April, and soon became very 

 common to the exclusion of its Blue-cheeked cousin. The 

 last week of the month in particular, flocks were to be 

 heard all day at a great height migrating. Their call re- 

 sembles that of the Sandgrouse, and like those birds they 

 are oftener heard than seen. Towards evening they fly 

 lower, and at sunset they are one of the first birds to go to 

 roost in large troops upon the Sont trees. 



The roof of the mouth is semi-transparent, as is the case 

 with some other birds of large gape. The tongue is split 

 into two or three points, and the beak is very sticky. The 

 thighs are bare. They are very easy birds to skin, and we 

 preserved a large number of the three sorts of Beeeaters. 

 First arrivals were not so bright as some which were ob- 

 tained later. Captain Shelley says the greater number do 

 not remain to breed, and I only saw one in June. In some 

 examples the centre tail feathers taper more than in others, 

 A short time ago a consignment of a thousand arrived in 

 England to make plumes !* 



* The first known British specimens of the Beeeater were shot in 

 Norfolk in 1794. One of them was given by Mr. Thomas Talbot of 

 Wymondham to Sir J. E. Smith, who after lending it to Mr. Lewin to 

 take its portrait (B.B., 1 1, p. 28) and exhibiting it to the Linnean Society, 

 gave it — according to the late Mr. Lombe's MS. — to Lord Stanley, and 

 Lsuppose it is now in the Museum at Liverpool. 



