AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 261 



in 1883, from about the end of February till nearly 

 the end of May, and saw the first Bee-eaters of the 

 season on April 11th, in the great plains of the 

 Guadalquivir below Seville, but heard their unmis- 

 takable and well-nigh indescribable cry high in the 

 air on the previous day. Soon after their arrival the 

 Bee-eaters are to be seen all over the country, skim- 

 ming like Swallows low over the plains and some- 

 times at a great height in the air, but always busily 

 engaged in the pursuit of their insect food; they 

 commit great havoc amongst the beehives, and lads are 

 often employed to shoot at and scare them from these 

 sweet-goods stores. We once witnessed the arrival 

 of a large flock of Bee-eaters from Africa on the coast 

 of Andalucia, near the town of Marbella ; it was 

 early morning on a bright day about the beginning 

 of April 1864 ; we heard the chide of the birds before 

 we could see any of them, and in a few minutes were 

 aware of some five or six plunging almost vertically 

 from a great height into a solitary Carob tree of no 

 great size, which grew some twenty yards from the 

 sandy sea-beach ; this advanced guard was quickly 

 followed by scattered detachments of hundreds, all 

 of which settled in the tree just mentioned. We 

 remained for perhaps half an hour at a short distance, 

 delighted spectators of this most interesting exhibi- 

 tion of bird life ; during the whole of the time the 

 Bee-eaters kept pouring into the tree, till its dark 

 and dense foliage was completely hidden by a mass 

 of animated and brilliant colours. The birds were 

 evidently fatigued, and on oiu' approaching closely to 

 the tree only a few of them rose and circled for a 

 minute or two in the air, settling again wherever they 

 could find perching-space amongst their travelling 



