Birds of Gazaland. 399 



a rule kept in constant motion, vibrating slightly but rapidly 

 backwards and forwards. In the lowlands 1 noted this 

 Bee-eater on January 3rd, 1907, between Gwaragwara and 

 Inyamita. The stomach of a specimen which I obtained in 

 Mashonaland in 1899 contained two small wasps, two flying- 

 ants, one fly, and beetles (one Onthophagus parumpunctatus, 

 one 0. gemmeus, and one Sphanoptera reticulata) ; others, 

 examined since, have contained flies and other small 

 insects. One of my specimens (Odendaal's No. 351) has a 

 trace of the blue forehead which distinguishes M. cyano- 

 stictus from the present species. M. cyanostictus has already 

 been recorded from Beira, where it was obtained in two 

 localities by Cavendish ('Ibis/ 1900, p. 115). 



171. Melittophagus BULLOCKoiDEs. Wliitc-frontcd Bcc- 

 eater. 



P. These Bee-eaters were particularly common in 

 December and January, not only along the river, but at 

 isolated pools and even in the bush, between Chibabava 

 and Muchukwana. During my stay at Chibabava numbers 

 of these birds, usually in scattered parties of five or six, 

 which occasionally united into flocks of as many as forty or 

 fifty individuals, were to be seen daily insect-hunting or 

 amusing themselves amongst the branches of the large 

 Trichilias and other shady trees, or in the denser scrub which 

 clothed the lower bank of the river. Thence single birds would 

 constantly take flights low over the water, sometimes to the 

 very centre of the river, which was here extremely wide, and 

 more often than not dip into the water, taking something 

 from it in their bill before returning to their station. On 

 November 29th, in little more than five minutes I counted 

 twenty-six such dips into the water on the part of the 

 members of a party of about twenty, and during the whole 

 time that I was watching, perhaps a quarter of an hour, I saw 

 the birds fly out six times after butterflies of some size, includ- 

 ing Pierines, probably Catopsilia florella and Belenois severina 

 or B. mesentina, as these seemed to be the only white butter- 

 flies which were flying over the water. In these six attempts 



