BEE-EATERS, ROLLERS, AND DRONGOS 149 



Their style of flight varies greatly in different circum- 

 stances. When merely travelling from place to place 

 they follow an undulating and flapping course, and do 

 not advance very rapidly, but when in pursuit of 

 other birds their flight takes on an entirely different 

 character, and they swoop and dash about with 

 marvellous speed. When hawking for insects they 

 take up a position on some prominent site command- 

 ing a wide outlook. Here they sit alert and vigilant, 

 and, as passing insects come within convenient dis- 

 tance, launch out into the air in pursuit. When 

 their quarry is above the level of their perch, they 

 either ascend by means of a series of rapid, flapping 

 strokes, or suddenly vault aloft as if discharged from 

 a spring, strike at their prey, turn abruptly round, 

 often performing a complete somersault in doing so, 

 and sweep back to their places ; when it is beneath 

 the level of their watch-towers they descend obliquely 

 to it, and then sweep round in a bold curve on 

 widely extended wings. There is something very 

 attractive in the sight of a party of them perched on 

 the tips of a group of slender bamboos in the late 

 evening; the long thin shoots, silhouetted against 

 the brilliant tints of a sky flaming in after-glow, 

 bend gracefully over under the weight of the 

 beautifully-shaped birds, who every now and then 

 leap aloft into the clear air and sail round in long 

 curving lines. Their flapping flights are very noisy, 

 and strangely unlike those in which they display 



