208 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



previous species before returning to its perch. I have often 

 Been one seated on a low palisade, or stixmp of a tree overhanging 

 a nullah, or back-water, every now and then picking an insect o£f 

 the surface of the water. 



They feed on wasps, bees, dragon-fiies, bugs, and even on butter- 

 flies, which 1 have seen this species frequently ciipture. The flight 

 of this Bee-eater is very fine and powerful, now dashing onwards 

 with rapid strokes, and a velocity that can beat that of a dragon- 

 fly, having captured which, it flaps along with more measured 

 time, now and then soaring with outspread wing. The voice 

 is a fine, mellow, rolling whistle. On one occasion I saw an 

 immense flock of them, probably many thousands, at Caroor, 

 on the road from Trichinopoly to the Neilgheries: they were 

 perched on the trees lining the fine avenue there, and every now 

 and then sallied forth for half an hour or so, capturing many 

 insects, and then returning to the trees. These birds were 

 probably collected there previous to migrating to their breeding 

 quarters. They nestle like the last in holes in banks of large 

 rivers. I have not seen in India any of these breeding haunts, 

 but I have lately seen them breeding in thousands on the banks 

 of the Irawaddy in Burmah, in April and May. It would be 

 interesting to know if all the birds of this species that 

 spread themselves over Southern India in the cold weather, 

 retire to the wooded banks of this noble river to breed. Mr. 

 Philipps, however, mentions that he found this species breed- 

 ing " in an old rampart opposite my house" at Muttra, in the 

 North-western Provinces ; and it probably nestles in the banks of 

 the Ganges and Jumna, though I have seen no record to that eflfect. 

 (The same observer has a disquisition about the native names of 

 the Bee-eaters, in which he confounds the species of Phyllornis 

 with the true Bee-eaters.) In Lower Bengal, according to Mr. 

 Blyth, this species occurs chiefly, or only, during the rainy season. 



119. Merops quinticolor, Vieill. 



Jerdon, Cat. 241 — Horsf., Cat. 108 — M. urica, Horsf. — 

 SwAiNSON, Zool. 111., N. S. pi. 8 — M. erythrocephalus, Latham — 

 Blyth, Gat. 235. 



