1919-] Birds of the Canary Islands. 471 



and wrote: — ''In winter the Bee-eater comes in large flocks 

 to Fuerteventura. . . . They also visit Canaria frequently, 

 and they nested for some time at Arguineguin ; a pair even 

 built in a hole in the wall of the little house I stayed in 

 in May 1856" (J. f. O. 1857, p. 324). 



Meade-Waldo found it to be an irregular but occasionally 

 numerous spring migrant, especially to the eastern islands 

 (Ibis, 1893, p. 195), where lie saw it in flocks. He obtained 

 a specimen at Laguna on the 4th of April, 1890, which 

 I have examined in the British Museum. 



It was very numerous in Tenerife on the 25th of April, 

 1890 (Ibis, f890, p. 429). 



Cabrera noted that it sometimes arrived in great numbers 

 in the month of May (Cattilogo, p. 38), and in support 

 of this is the fact that von Thanner shot two (a male and 

 female) on the 7th of May, 1904, in Tenerife (Orn. Jahrb. 

 1905, p. 212). 



Polatzek includes it as a Regular Bird of Passage in 

 spring, and says : — " In TeneriFe in sjjring, in the zone 

 of about 2300 m., when the bees are swarming ('Bienen- 

 korbe') they make themselves unpleasantly perceptible. 

 In May I saw them flying in large swarms (' grosseren 

 Schwarmen ^) over Fuerteventura; they were so high up, 

 that I should never have observed them, had I not recog- 

 nized their call-note. Sometimes some of them fly down 

 and hunt in the neighbourhood of Oliva, without staying- 

 there long. In Fuerteventura I saw some resting in a 

 fig tree'' (Orn. Jahrb. 1909, p. 120). 



Polatzek never found the Bee-eater breeding in the islands. 



Range. The Bee-cater breeds in southern Europe and 

 north Africa, north of the Sahara. It winters in tropical 

 and southern Africa. 



Merops persicus. Persian or Blue-cheeked Bee-eater. 

 [Merops persicus persicus. 



Merups perslca Pallas, Reise d. versch. Prov. d. Russ. 

 Reichs^ ii. 1773, p. 708 — Type locality : shores of Caspian 



Sea.] 



