EUROPEAN BEE-EATER. 



Merops apiaster^ LINNAEUS. 

 



Above, rufous; beneath, bright green; chin, yellow, bor- 

 dered with black ; rump, fulvous ; wings, green, the greater 

 covers rufous. 



Merops apiaster, Auctorum ; Temm. Manuel, i. 420 Le Gnc- 



pier, Buff. PL Enl. 938 ; Le Vaill. Ois. de Parad. iii. pi. 182. 

 Common or European Bee-eater of authors. 



THE geographic range of this Bee-eater, the only 

 species that visits Europe, appears to extend from 

 the Cape of Good Hope to the central parts of 

 Europe, beyond which, in a northerly direction, it 

 must be considered, as in England, but an occasional 

 or straggling visitor. M. Temminck is quite mis- 

 taken in supposing that it is most abundant in 

 France, for the birds which arrive there are only the 

 remnant of those that escape the sportsman of Italy 

 and Sicily, where great numbers are destroyed upon 

 their first arrival from the African coast. In Sicily 

 we have repeatedly seen them in flocks of from 

 eight to thirty, low but rapidly skimming over 

 the orange gardens and cultivated grounds. Al- 

 though their flesh is tough and disagreeable, they 

 are nevertheless shot by the Sicilians (who shoot 

 every thing), with the hoopoes, orioles, quails, and 

 other birds which migrate at the same season. Our 

 Senegal specimens perfectly agree with those we 

 brought from the Mediterranean. 



