MEROPID^3 MELITTOPHAGUS 69 



after their prey. They appear to be, at any rate in Natal, residents 

 and not migratory. 



The following extract is from Dr. Stark's notebook. " December 

 15, Pinetown, Natal. Saw a single Merops pusillus sitting on the 

 top of a dead reed in a marshy spot. In a low sandy bank near 

 where the bird was sitting, and now and then taking short flights 

 after insects, I found several small holes, and from one, about two 

 feet deep, I extracted with a rush some wing cases and elytra of 

 beetles. On digging down from above, I found the young, unfledged 

 birds a few days old, and the remains of a delicate white-shelled egg. 

 After restoring the hole and retiring a short distance, I for some 

 time watched the Bee-Eater I had previously seen. He took up his 

 station on the top of a low twig not many yards from the nest hole, 

 and from thence made short flights after insects, returning to the 

 same station. Occasionally during his sallies he would pass just 

 in front of the nest hole. Once I heard a short note as he did so, 

 but ordinarily these Bee-Eaters seem to be silent and unsocial birds. 

 They never seem to hawk for prey like Merops apiaster, but take 

 a short sally of a few yards from their station on the top of a reed 

 or twig, returning to the same spot continually. They throw up 

 the hard, indigestible part of their insect-prey in the form of casts, 

 shaking their head violently from side to side while doing so (like 

 owls). The chamber at the end of the nest hole is in consequence 

 lined with the remains of wing cases of beetles and other hard parts 

 of insects. A week later I again watched the same nest. One of 

 the birds was sitting in the usual place on the top of a low bush 

 some fifteen or twenty yards off. It was probably the female ; it 

 displayed little or no alarm at my presence, but continued catching 

 its insect prey and carrying food to its young. It entered the nest 

 hole fourteen times in fifteen minutes, only staying in a few seconds. 

 The male appeared and sat on the same sprig as the female at the 

 end of thirteen minutes, and during the remaining two minutes fed 

 the young twice alternately with the female, so that when both 

 birds are at work the young are fed at intervals of half a minute. 

 I noticed one bird catch a white butterfly, but small coleopterous 

 insects seem to form the chief part of their prey. Whilst seated on 

 their perches they turn their heads from side to side constantly." 



The eggs of this species were found by Ayres on October 20, on 

 the Quae Quae river in Mashonaland. 



A clutch of four obtained at Sydenham, near Durban, on 

 October 11 by Mr. Millar are now in the South African Museum ; 



