[roller. BEE-EATER. 313 



colour; the back and uj)per parts of tlie wiiig of a 

 russet yellow. The fore part of the wing azure; suc- 

 ceeded downward by a greenish blue, then on the flying 

 feathers bright blue ; the lower parts of the wing out- 

 wardly of a brown ; inwardly of a merry blue ; the 

 belly a light faint blue ; the back toward the tail of a 

 purple blue; the tail, eleven feathers of a greenish 

 colour ; the extremities of the outward feathers thereof 

 white with an eye of green. — Ga/irrulus argentoratensis." 



MEROPS APIASTER, Lmnaeus. 



BEE-EATEE. 



This species, equally brilliant in plumage, is like 

 the last, a very rare and accidental visitant, although 

 several authenticated examples have been obtained in 

 this county. Yarrell remarks that ^^no specimen 

 of the common Bee-eater, of Africa, appears to be 

 recorded to have been killed in England till the 

 summer of 1794, when a communication was made 

 to the Linnean Society, and a specimen of this beau- 

 tiful bird was exhibited by the president. Sir James 

 Edward Smith, which had been shot out of a flock 

 of about twenty, near Mattishall, in Norfolk, in the 

 month of June, by the Rev. George Smith; and a 

 portion probably of this same flight, much diminished 

 in numbers, was observed passing over the same spot 

 in the month of October following." The next recorded 

 instance is probably the one mentioned by Messrs. 

 Sheppard and Whitear, as shot near Yarmouth, which 

 came into the possession of Mr. Seaman, of Ipswich; 

 and in the Museum collection (No. 156) is an immature 

 bird killed many years back at Gisleham; and in his 

 "Fauna of Norfolk," published in 1845, Mr. Lubbock 

 2s 



