XVII 

 SUMMER VISITORS TO THE PUNJAB PLAINS 



DURING the months that Father Sol is doing 

 his best to make the Punjab an earthly 

 Inferno the birds are busy at their nests. 

 They do not seem to mind the heat. Some 

 of them positively revel in it, visiting us only in the 

 hot weather. These summer visitors form an interest- 

 ing group. 



The bee-eaters are the first to make their appear- 

 ance. In the first or second week in March, two species 

 of bee-eater visit the Punjab — the little green one 

 (Merops viridis), and the blue-tailed species {M. 

 philippinus). The former is a grass-green bird about 

 the size of a bulbul. Its beak is slightly curved and 

 black ; a bar of the same hue runs through the eye. 

 The throat is a beautiful turquoise blue. The wings 

 are tinted with bronze, so that the bird, when it flies, 

 looks golden rather than green. The most distinctive 

 feature of the bee-eater is the middle pair of tail 

 feathers, which are blackish and project beyond the 

 others as sharp bristles. 



Bee-eaters feed upon insects which they catch on the 

 wing. The larger species live up to their name by 

 devouring bees and wasps. Like every other bird that 



