FOREIGN BEES. 301 



the irritated insects by a peculiarly tough skin.* 

 The European Bee-Eater (Merops apiaster) is an 

 elegant bird, and clothed in brilliant colours, but with 

 a stridulous and somewhat disagreeable cry. It 

 feeds on insects, especially bees, wasps, hornets, 

 &c., and also on the smaller tribes of gnats and flies. 

 It inhabits the warmer parts of Europe, South Africa, 

 and is seldom met with in the northern regions of 

 the globe; while it abounds in Southern Russia, par- 

 ticularly about the rivers Don and Wolga, whose 

 banks are sometimes perforated to a great extent fry 

 their excavations. t 



* Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise. 



j- Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, Article Ornithology. 



F1NI8, 



J. OGDE2J AND CO., TEIMIILBS, 172, t>T. JOHN SIKliET, E.G. 



