BA VA—BEE-EATER 29 
Turnices, and Striges. Similar processes spring from the basi- 
sphenoidal rostrum in many other Carinate, eg. Anseres, Galline, 
Columbe, Pteroclid, Cathartidz, and Serpentarius ; while in many 
birds these processes are developed in the embryo but are resorbed 
finally, or they are never developed, the anterior ends of the 
pterygoids in either case articulating with the palatine bones alone, 
or, resting directly upon the basisphenoidal rostrum, as in Phoeni- 
copterus, Gralle, Laride, Dicholophus, Pygopodes, Impennes, 
Steganopodes, Falconid, Psittaci, Cuculide, Opisthocomus, Macro- 
chires, Pici, and Passeres. In the Limicole and Tubinares these 
processes are very variable. For illustrations see SKULL. 
BAYA (Hindoo Baia), often used by English writers for the 
common WEAVER-BIRD of India, Ploceus baya, the builder of the well- 
known retort-shaped nests. 
BAY-BIRD, and 
BEACH-BIRD, common names on the Atlantic coast of North 
America for several of the Limicolz, as the SANDERLING, TURN- 
STONE, and others. (Cf. Trumbull, Names and Portraits of Birds, 
pp. 186, 191 note.) 
BEAK, see BILt. 
BEAM-BIRD, said to be the name used in some parts of 
England for the Spotted FLYCATCHER. 
BEE-EATER, a name apparently first used in 1668 by Charleton 
(Onomasticon, p. 87) as a translation of the Latin and Greek JMerops, 
though he said that the bird was rarely or never found in England 
—the Merops apiaster of ornithology. ‘The term being appropriate 
(as is shewn by its equivalent in cognate tongues—Danish, Bixder ; 
German, Dienenfresser) has been continued to this species, and sub- 
sequently extended to others more or less closely allied to it, form- 
ing a small but natural Family, Meropidx, admirably monographed 
_ by Mr. Dresser (London: 1884-1886, imp. 4to), who recognizes five 
genera, and thirty-one species. They belong to the group in this 
work termed Picariz, and are distinguished for their brilliant colora- 
tion, their graceful form, and their active habits, since every species 
seems to obtain its living by catching insects as they fly. The Bee- 
eaters are birds of the Old World, and the majority (18) of the 
species are peculiar to the Ethiopian Region, two more also occurring 
within its limits, while only four inhabit the Palearctic area, one of 
them being the M. apiaster named above, which appears irregularly 
in Northern Europe in summer, and has more than thirty times 
visited Great Britain since its first recorded occurrence in June 
1793, when a flight of about twenty was observed in Norfolk, and 
a specimen obtained at that time is still preserved in the Derby 
Museum at Liverpool. 
