DESCRIPTION, DISTRIBUTION, HABITS 



and (ownerless domestic cats destroy large numbers of lioopoes, 

 and rats dev^our their eggs and young. They do not build a 

 nest. Any sort of hole provides a place for laying the eggs and 

 rearing the young. Creyices in stone walls, under the eayes 

 of houses, holes in old tree trunks, cavities in termite hills, 

 under piles of timber, are all situations in which the hoopoe 

 elects to rear its brood. The eggs are 4 to 5 in number, pale 

 blue in colour; size, 1.05 by 0.72. The blue ground of the 

 eggs soon turns to a dirty white colour when exposed to light. 

 The nest is usually foul with the excrement of the parent birds 

 and nestlings. The breeding season is from October to January. 



European Bee - Eater {Merops apiaster). (Vol. II., 

 p. 40.) 



Description. — Yellowish-white on the forehead. Light 

 green streaks over the eyes. Crown and mantle dark chestnut, 

 becoming lighter on the back and rump. Upper tail coverts 

 green. Lesser wing coverts green, the rest chestnut. Wing 

 quills tipped with black. Tail feathers black, the two centre 

 ones thinner and an inch longer than the rest, and also tipped 

 with black. Chin and throat bright yellow, a narrow transverse 

 black band dividing the yellow of the, throat from the greenish- 

 blue of the breast and abdomen. Iris bright red. Bill black. 

 Legs grey-brown. 



The female is not quite so bright as the male, and the two 

 centre feathers are not so narrow or so long. 



Lengthy 9.4 ; wing, 5.70 ; tail, to the end of the two 

 centre feathers, 4.80. 



Distribution. — From the Cape to Southern Europe and 

 Central Asia. 



Habits. — The European bee-eater is migratory. It appears 

 in S(^uth Africa during the summer months and breeds in deep 

 holes which it excavates in perpendicular banks. Failing these, 

 it tunnels into sloping banks and sometimes in the flat ground. 

 These birds usually breed in small colonies. Eggs in clutch, 5 ; 

 rounded and glossy white ; size, 1.05 by 0.87. 



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