Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 83 



hollow tree in Bashan, near Gadara, on the 6th of May. It is 

 noticed by Russell among the birds of Aleppo. 



The Bee-eater {Mernps apiastev), though far more numerous 

 in individuals than the Roller, is less universally distributed, 

 living, however, in large societies in every part of the country. 

 Unlike its smaller congener Merops viridis, it does not fre- 

 quently perch, but remains for hours on the wing, skimming, 

 swallow-like, up and down a nullah or wady, or systematically 

 ranging and quartering a barley plain in pursuit of insects on 

 the wing. Seen athwart the sunbeams as they pass overhead, 

 their colour has the appearance of burnished copper. They feed 

 as well as breed in colonies, preferring low banks to the steeper 

 declivities, and seeming to rely for protection against lizards and 

 other enemies on the structure and turnings of their dwellings 

 rather than on their position. I have taken the eggs from a 

 nest in the side of a mere low sand mound on the plain, out of 

 which I startled the bird by riding over its hole. 



The Bee-eater does not, so far as I can ascertain, utilize the 

 borings of the previous year ; whether from the number of para- 

 sitic insects it leaves behind, or from the fact that the lizards 

 generally squat in the vacant dwellings, I cannot say. Some 

 authors have stated that it lines its nest with the elytra and legs 

 of beetles. This I conceive is quite a mistake, and to be classed 

 with the similar error respecting our Kingfisher applying fish- 

 bones to the same purpose. When the eggs are first laid, there 

 are no insect-remains to be found ; but as the female continues 

 to sit, the debris of her meals becomes heaped around her, and 

 in old nests one might generally fill a quart pot with the elytra 

 of the Coleoptera on which the young have been reared. There 

 is an excellent description of its nesting-habits by Mr. Salvin 

 (Ibis, 1859, p. 303), to which I have nothing to add. It is 

 called jj^j *'warwar" by the natives, from its cry, and is men- 

 tioned by Russell as being considered delicate eating by the 

 Syrians. 



Our Palestine experience will not throw much light on the 

 habits of the two other species which occur there ; for Merops 

 agyptius, Forsk., was not found by me during this expedition 

 (though I shot it in the Jordan valley in 1858), and Mr. Cochrane 



g2 



