Picarian Birds. 



99 



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The Bee-Eater. 



THE COMMON 



BEE-EATER. 

 [Merops a piaster.) 



readily serves to distinguish them from 

 other Picarian hirds. Their long curved 

 bill and flat foot, with the toes joined to- 

 gether for some distance, and their ten tail- 

 feathers, the two central ones of which are 

 generally elongated, are well pronounced 

 characters, and in addition to these they 

 have the fore part of the breast-bone per- 

 forated, so that the feet of the coracoid 

 bones meet together through the opening. 

 This curious arrangement is found in 

 Hoopoes, Hornbills and Game-birds. 



This brightly- 

 plumaged bird visits 

 Europe in summer 

 and extends through 



the Mediterranean countries, eastwards to Central Asia and to Cashmere. In 

 winter it betakes itself by the east coast of Africa down to the Cape Colony, and 

 is said to breed a second time in its winter quarters. The food of the Bee-eater 

 consists entirel)' of insects, and in Southern Spain the bird is said to earn the hatred 

 of the peasantry from the slaughter it creates among the bees. There is no nest, 

 but the birds tunnel for a long way into sandy banks, and deposit their five or si.x 

 white eggs in a chamber at the end of this tunnel. 



This Indian species is said by the late John Hancock to 

 have been shot at Seaton Carew, in Northumberland, in 

 August, 1S62. Its home is in 

 India and Southern China, 

 whence it extends through the Burmese countries 

 and the Malayan Peninsula to the Philippines, Java, 

 Borneo, and Celebes. In habits it resembles the 

 Common Bee-eater, and lays four or five glossy 

 pure white eggs at the end of a hole without any 

 nest. The species may be distinguished from M. 

 apiaster by its green upper surface and blue tail. 



These are most ummistak- 

 able birds, remarkable for their 

 enormously developed crests, 

 variegated wings, and desert-coloured sandy 

 plumage; they have also a peculiarly long and curved 

 slender bill. They have the same perforation of the 

 fore part of the breast-bone as the Bee-eaters, but The Bluk-Taileu Bee-Eater. 



THE BLUE-TAILED 

 BEE-EATER. 



{Merops pliilipj'inus). 



THE HOOPOES. 

 Sub-order UFUl'.J^. 



