226 MEROPID^. 



tentots by directing them to the honey which the bees 

 store in the clefts of the rocks." It has often been asked 

 how it is that many of our small birds manage to swallow 

 live bees, and even wasps, without appearing to suffer from 

 their powerful stings. I believe that the bird pinches the 

 insect, passing it from head to tail between the points of 

 its mandibles, till by repeated compression, particularly on 

 the abdomen, the sting is either squeezed out, or its mus- 

 cular attachments so deranged that the sting itself is harm- 

 less. I have mentioned that the Bee-eater is common 

 during summer in Greece and the islands of the Archi- 

 pelago, and in Crete is said to be the most plentiful. It 

 is in this latter island, " that the curious mode of bird- 

 catching described by Bellonius is said to be frequently 

 practised with success, viz. a cicada is fastened on a bent 

 pin or fish-hook, and tied to a long slender line. The 

 insect, when thrown from the hand, ascends into the air, 

 and flies with rapidity ; the Merops, ever on the watch, 

 seeing the cicada, springs at it, and swallowing the bait, is 

 thus taken by the Cretan boys." 



In the adult male the beak is nearly black ; the irides 

 red ; the lore and ear-coverts black ; forehead tinged with 

 verditer blue, which extends in a line over the eye ; top of 

 the head, neck, back, and wing-coverts, rich reddish brown, 

 passing on the rump to saffron yellow ; primary and se- 

 condary quill-feathers greenish blue, the shafts and ends 

 black ; tertials greenish blue, but without dark tips ; upper 

 tail-coverts bluish green ; tail-feathers duck green, the 

 middle pair with narrow ends extending beyond the others ; 

 chin and throat rich saffron yellow, bounded below by a 

 bar of bluish black ; breast, belly, and under tail-coverts, 

 verdigris green, tinged with blue ; under wing-coverts fawn 

 colour; under surface of wing and tail-feathers greyish 



