BEE 



157 



BEE 



In the south of Europe it is frequent fn the summer. 

 Sicily, Sardinia, Italy, the South of France, and Germany 

 possess it, and on the southern border of Russia it is nume- 

 rous. It is found in Turkey and in the Archipelago, and 

 in autumn migrates towards Egypt. It breeds in holes in 

 the banks of the Don and the Wolga, laying from five to 

 seven white eggs in a nest composed of moss, &c. Hasscl- 

 quist says that it is found in the plains of Galilee, and that 

 it is called Varuar by the Arabs ; and Temminck, that the 

 individuals found at the Cape of Good Hope differ in nothing 

 from those killed in Europe. Ray, in his edition of Wil- 

 litgftby, observes, ' it is not unfrequent in the Campagn of 

 Rome : for that we saw it there to be sold in the market 

 more than once. It is not found in England that we know 

 of. Bellonius writes that it is so common in Candy, that 

 it is seen everywhere in that island. Aristotle tells us that 

 it feeds upon bees, whom all other writers of the history of 

 animals do therein follow. But it feeds not only upon bees, 

 but also upon Cicada, beetles, and other insects. Yea, as 

 Bellonius relates, upon the seeds of the nipplewort, bastard 

 parsley, turnip, &c., not abstaining from wheat and other 

 grain. From its exact agreement in the shape and make 

 of its body, bill, and feet with the king-fisher, we suspect 

 that it likewise preys upon fish. 



' Bullonius. in the first book of his observations, writes 

 thus concerning the Merops. Flying in the air it catches 

 and preys upon bees, as swallows do upon Hies. It Hies not 

 singly but in Hocks, and especially by the side of those moun- 

 tains where the true thyme grows. Its voice is heard afar off, 

 almost like the whistling of a man. Its singular elegance 

 invites the Candy boys to hunt for it with Cicada, as they 

 <lo also for those greater swallows called Swifts, after this 

 manner : bending a pin like a hook, and tying it by the 

 head to the end of a thread, they thrust it through a Cicada 

 (as boys bait a hook with a lly), holding the other end of 

 the thread in their hand. The Cicada so fastened Hies, 

 nevertheless, in the air, which the Merops spying, Hies after 

 it with all her force, and catching it, swallows pin and all, 

 wherewith she is caught.' 



The passage in Aristotle, mentioning the Merops as one 

 of the enemies most destructive to bees, is in the 40th chap- 

 ter of the 9th book of his History of Animals; and there 

 are others in the 1st chapter of his 6th book, and in the 

 13th chapter of his 9th, wherein he notices the peculiarity 

 of its making its nest in holes in the earth*. 



The species may now be considered as an occasional visitant 

 to this country. In the third volume of the Transactions 

 of the Linnamn Society will be found the following extract 

 from the minute-book, recording the first instance of its 

 appearance : 



' July 2, 1794. The president communicated an account 

 of Mfrops Apiiister, the bee-eater, having been shot (for 

 the first time in Great Britain) near Mattishall, in the 

 county of Norfolk, by the Rev. Mr. George Smith. The 

 identical specimen was exhibited by permission of Mr. 

 Thomas Talbot, of Wymondham. A flight of about twenty 

 was seen in June, and the same flight probably (much 

 diminished in number) was observed passing over the same 

 spot in October following.' There is a specimen in the 

 British Museum with ' Devonshire' on the label. 



BEECH-TREE. [See FAGUS.] 



BEEDEK, :i e< in siderable province of Hindustan, forming 

 part of the dominions of the Nizam, and lying between 17 

 and 20 N. lat. It is bounded on the west by Bejapore and 

 Aurungabad ; on the north by the latter province and 

 Berar; on the cast by Gundwana and Hyderabad, which 

 last-named province forms also its southern boundary. 



The province of Boeder is divided into seven districts, 

 viz.. Calberga, Naldroog, Akulcotah, Calliany, Beeder, 

 Nandeer, and Patree. 



The surface of the province is hilly, but cannot be called 

 mountainous. It is watered by several small streams, and 

 is intersected by the Beemah, Manjera, Kistna, and Go- 

 davcry rivers. The Beemah, which is considered a sacred 

 river by the Hindus, is a principal branch of the Kistna, and 

 rises in the mountains on the north of Poonah. Passing 

 within 20 miles east of that city, it flows with many wind- 

 ings in a south-easterly direction, and after a course of 

 nearly 400 miles it falls "into the Kistna near Eidghcer in 

 Hyderabad. The Manjera rises about 50 miles south-east 

 from Ahmednuggur, and Hows in a south-easterly direction 



Jiekkrr, in the lit chapter of th Ctli book, gives i'e 

 urne of the bird. (Set Bt kkcr'i edit Berlin, 1939.) 



, ta the Ba'otian 



past the city of Beeder, and within a few miles of it to tho 

 north-east. When it has arrived within about 30 miles of 

 the city of Hyderabad it makes an abrupt bend to the 

 north, and joins the Godavery in 18 48' N. lat. and 77 55' 

 E. long., about 400 miles from its source. The Manjera is 

 not navigable in any part of its course. 



The soil of Beeder is generally productive, and previous 

 to the Mohammedan conquest the province is said to have 

 been thickly peopled. Its numbers must since then have 

 much fallen off, as it is not now so populous in proportion 

 to its extent as the greater part of the British possessions 

 in India. The Hindus exceed the Mohammedans in the 

 proportion of three to one. 



On the invasion of the Deccan, in 1295, the founder of 

 the Bhamenee dynasty, Allah ud Deen, took up his resi- 

 dence at Calberga, the capital of the district of that name, in 

 17 19' N.lat. and"o56'E.long. Although once the capital 

 of a Hindu and afterwards of a Mohammedan sovereign, 

 Calberga has since become a place of no importance. The 

 province was brought under subjection by the Moguls in the 

 reign of Aurungzebe, but was wrested from the successors 

 of that prince, in 1717, by Nizam ul Mulk, the sovereign of 

 Hyderabad, and has since continued in the occupation Of 

 the successive Nizams. 



(Mills's History of British India ; Rennell's Memoir of 

 a Map of Hindustan ; Ferishta's History of the Deccan.) 



BEEDER, the capital of the province of the same name, 

 is situated in 17 49' N. lat. and 77 45' E. long. We have 

 not any recently published description of this place. About 

 half a century since it was surrounded by a stone wall, six 

 miles in circumference, with round towers at intervals. The 

 space between this wall and the town is a level and open 

 place, a mode of building a town which is not uncommon in 

 India. 



Beeder was founded near the ruins of an old city at the 

 end of the sixteenth century, by Ahmed Shah Bhamenee, 

 who gave to it the name of Ahmedabad, and transferred to 

 it the seat of his government from Calberga. Beeder is 

 situated 426 miles (travelling distance) from Bombay, 980 

 miles from Calcutta, 857 from Delhi, and 78 from Hydera- 

 bad. 



(Mills's History of British India; Rennell's Memoir of 

 a Map of Hindustan.) 



BEEF-EATER, a jocular appellation, as it is now used, 

 for the yeomen of the guard ; though it seems probable 

 that the name of buffetiers was formerly assigned to that 

 portion of the yeomen of the guard only who from time to 

 time waited at table at great solemnities, and were ranged 

 near the buffets. (See Antiq. Repert. edit. 1808, vol. ii. p. 

 398.) The French in the same manner called their valets 

 who attended the side-board buffets. Furetiere (Dictionn. 

 Universelle, torn. i. in voce) having defined buffet to be a 

 tort of cupboard for keeping vessels, china, &c. : also a side- 

 board furnished for the service of the table, adds, ' Hujftt 

 se dit aussi des officiers ou valets qui servent au buffet.' 



BEELZEBUB. [See BAAL.] 



BEER. [See BREWING.] 



BEER- ALSTON, a small market-town in the parish of 

 Beer-Ferris and hundred of Roborough, in the county of 

 Devon, is situate in a most picturesque country between 

 the rivers Tamar and Tavy, six miles S.S.W. from Ta- 

 vistock, fourteen N. from Plymouth, and 212 W.S,\V. from 

 London. 



According to Risdon, it was given by William the Con- 

 queror to the French family of Alenson soon after the con- 

 quest, from whom it took its name. In the reign of Henry 

 II., 'this honour,' says Risdon, 'as well as Beer- Ferrers, 

 erroneously called Bere-Ferris, was held by Henry Ferrers ; 

 and Martin Ferrers, the last of that antient house, was put 

 in special trust to defend the sea-coast against the invasion 

 of the French in Edward III.'s time.' Towards the close 

 of the fourteenth century it belonged to Alexander Cham- 

 pernowne of Darlington, and through his grand-daughter it 

 descended to Robert Willoughby, Lord Brooke. It is now 

 the property of the Earl of Beverley. 



Beer-Alston was an antient borough by prescription, 

 although it did not send members to parliament till the 

 reign of Elizabeth. The electors nominally held land of the 

 lord of the manor, at a rent of three-pence. But there really 

 were no landholders except the lord, who created burgage 

 tenures merely for the election. This is one of the flagrant 

 abuses abolished by the Reform Act, Becr-AUton being by 

 that act totally disfranchised. The election of members of 



