364 



BEE- EATER. 



this country ; and all are admitted into arboretums, 

 or for diversifying ornamental plantations. 



-*** 1 1 liTSllYThyTmITT TfliT V ' i>i ,-_~ , 



Beech Tree. 



As the beech kernel is so agreeable to the palate, 

 and perfectly wholesome to the human constitu- 

 tion, it has been suggested whither it be capable, as 

 the hazel has been, of improvement by domestication 

 and culture. If by the art of cross impregnation, or 

 extremely high garden management, the nuts could 

 be advanced to the size of its congener, the .sweet 

 chestnut, the result would be of importance to the nut- 

 eating mortals of the south of Europe. Such a result 

 may rationally be expected ; and it is one which 

 should not be lost sight of by the fruit cultivator. 



BEE-EATER (Merops). A genus ofAlcyonian or 

 Syndactylous birds, remarkable for the bright colours 

 and metallic lustre of their plumage, as well as for 

 the nature of their food. They get their English 

 name of " Bee-eaters " because bees form a large 

 portion of their prey, though they also feed upon 

 wasps, hornets, and various other insects of long and 

 comparatively rapid flight. The order or group are 

 called Alcyonida:, from the resemblance they have in 

 their structure and some of their habits to the king- 

 fisher (Alccdo); and the}' are called Syndactyli from 

 the structure of their feet, which are the least used 

 in finding their food, and the least efficient for any 

 species of locomotion which are found among the 

 feathered tribes. Syndactylic means " having the toes 

 together;" and these birds have the exterior front 

 toe united to the middle one as far as the second 

 joint, and the inner united to the same as far as the first 

 joint In the genus under consideration, the hind toe is 

 enlarged at the base, and the claw upon it is very short. 



Feet of this description are neither well adapted 

 for walking nor for perching ; and few of the birds 

 which have them perch for any other purpose than 

 that of rest, for which the foot is, on account of its 

 stiffness, and the shortness of the tarsus, well adapted. 

 But these feet answer well for another purpose, that 



of digging in the ground, which is a habit not of this 

 genus only, but of most of the order, in the construc- 

 tion of their nests, which arc frequently made as deep 

 as six or seven feet, in steep banks of soft earth. 



The generic characters of the bee-eaters are : the 

 feet, as already described ; the bill of mean length, 

 triangular at the base, slightly arched, having an 

 elevated ridge on the culmen, sharp pointed, and 

 strong and hard in the toinia or cutting edges ; the 

 wings long and pointed, the first quill generally short, 

 and merely supporting the second, which is the longest 

 in the wing; the form of the tail varies with the 

 species, being square at the end in some, forked in 

 others, and in others again with the middle feathers 

 produced, but in all the species it is of considerable 

 length. There is a double hollow anteriorly on each 

 side of the sternum, and the keel of that bone is very 

 much produced, as in all birds of powerful wing. 



The plumage upon these birds is not only beauti- 

 ful in its colours, and rich and metallic in its lustre, but 

 it is remarkably close and firm both in its texture and 

 in its adherence to the skin, so that it is difficult 

 either to deplume or ruffle the birds by any ordinary 

 casualty. Even the skin is much tougher than that 

 of birds generally ; and though the flesh, at least of 

 many of the species, is said to be both palatable and 

 wholesome, the birds have to be skinned before they 

 are dressed, in the same manner as such of the omni- 

 vorous birds as are eaten. 



The nests, as has been said, are placed deep iu the 

 ground, so deep as not to be very much affected by 

 changes of atmospheric temperature ; and as the 

 birds are day-feeders only, both male and female 

 are in the nest during the night, the one on the eggs 

 and the other between and the entrance, acting as a 

 sort of screen. The temperature of the eggs of these 

 birds during the incubation is consequently much 

 more uniform than that of the eggs of surface or til 

 tree breeders. At the same time, it is a low tem- 

 perature as compared with the temperature of the 

 atmosphere during the day in the places which these 

 birds inhabit ; the greater number of them being 

 found in the hottest parts of the eastern continent, 

 and only one making its appearance in Europe, and 

 that one not found to the north of the forty-eighth 

 parallel of latitude, except as a rare and accidental 

 straggler. The eggs which are deposited in the deep 

 excavations made by these birds are placed, upon 

 only a little moss. They are of a white colour, and 

 vary iu number from five to seven. 



Eggs so placed, and of such a colour, are not sub- 

 ject to much heat from surrounding objects ; and the 

 smooth and glossy plumage of the birds renders them 

 less capable of imparting heat to the eggs than those 

 species which have the clothing on the under part 

 more downy. From these circumstances it naturally 

 Follows that the process of hatching should be slower 

 in these birds than in species which have their eggs 

 at or above the surface of the ground. In their incu- 

 bations, birds appear to work to a certain temperature, 

 and ;he sitting of the bird seems to be for the keep- 

 ing up of that temperature when the atmosphere 

 sinks below it. If the nest is on the surface the bird 

 may be said to work to the highest temperature 

 which the place and the season afford, as is the case 

 with the partridge among the clods, or the plover or 

 lapwing on the dry heath. If the nest is elevated 

 above the surface, the bird works to a lower tempe- 

 rature, as in the case of the rook on the top of the 



