PICARIJL 



BEE-EATER. 



435 



MEROPIDJE. 



Merops apiaster, Linnaeus*. 



THE BEE-EATER. 



Merops apiaster. 



Merops, Linnteusf. — Beak rather long, hard, slightly decurved, ami tapering 

 to a point, the culmen elevated. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, covered by hairs 

 directed forwards. Wings long, of ten primaries ; the first very short, the 

 second the longest, but the third nearly its equal. Tail of twelve rectrices, 

 rather long. Tibire bare below ; tarsi short, toes small, three before, one behind, 

 the middle united to the outer toe as far as the second joint, and to the inner 

 as far as the first joint. 



No specimen of the Bee-eater is recorded to have been 

 killed in England J till that exhibited to the Linnean Society 

 by Sir J. E. Smith, which was shot at Mattishall in 

 Norfolk, in June 1793, as Latham (Syn. Suppl. ii. p. 149) 

 says, out of a flight of about twenty, some survivors of which 



* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 182 (1766). t /-<«'. cU. 



X Gharlcton in 1688 wrote (Onomast. p. 87) of the species "reperitur ... in 

 Anglia autem rarissime ant nunquam." The Bpecimen be figured was brought 

 from Italy. 



