Bee-eaters and their Burrows 163 
observations, is about 19 April; hence, following the Spanish custom 
he christened it ‘St. Bee-eater's Day” and as such it has been 
known for years to all who had the happiness. to wander in the 
wilds of southern Spain with that truly admirable ornithologist. 
In the small garden surrounding my little dwelling in the wilds 
there are placed many of the cork bee-hives, known in Spain as 
colmenares, and year after year have I been awakened at an 
early hour during the first days of April by the well-known liquid 
cry of the Bee-eaters as, pausing in their first flight from the 
African shores, they proceed to take toll of the luckless bees 
swarming about the hives. The number of bees one of these birds 
can devour is almost incredible. 
I know of few more fascinating occupations than a ride or stroll 
through the cork forests, now threading one’s way through dense 
woods, now emerging on some grassy glade, across which the 
roe-deer dart silently, following the sinuous tracks made by many 
generations of pack animals, which at times have cut deep through 
some sandy bluff or hillside making narrow passages hardly wide 
enough for a laden beast to pass. In the vertical sand-banks 
thus formed, the Bee-eaters burrow their deep tunnelled passages, 
often for 1o ft. or more, Sand-Martin fashion, and deposit three 
or four shining round white eggs in a small chamber at the far 
end. The simplest way to get at these nests is to watch the 
birds entering and leaving the numerous holes, until one which 
is in occupation is detected. Armed with a telescopic Japanese 
fishing-rod, I have plumbed many such burrows and when one 
is found which trends upwards so as to be within reasonable reach 
of the surface of the ground above, by carefully measuring the 
length of the burrow and noting its direction, | have dug down 
from above and reached the nest with but little trouble. 
There are various perplexing points in the Bee-eater's habits. 
Thus they make many more burrows than they require ; possibly, 
