3G6 



B E E - E A T E R. 



as birds prepared for a very marked office in nature, 

 and it is of use to examine them well in their pre- 

 paration before we follow them in their course, and 

 watch them in the performances of their labours. 

 We have seen that their bills are, proportional to the 

 size of the birds, sufficiently large for being powerful, 

 but at the same time not heavy ; that they are strong 

 in their cutting edges, closing firmly for the whole 

 length, and sharp pointed, so as to divide the atmo- 

 sphere like an arrow. The wings are long and 

 pointed, not unlike those of the swallow tribe ; and 

 the muscles by which they are worked, have ample 

 support, not only from the deep keel of the sternum, 

 but from the furrows in that bone. The tails are 

 long and strong ; and the varied shapes of their ter- 

 minations would lead us to infer three distinct varie- 

 ties of habits, or rather of haunt among the genus. 

 Thus those with square tails are for ascent or descent, 

 those with the middle feathers produced for more 

 forward flight, and those with the forked tails better 

 able to wheel and turn in the air. Feet to aid in the 

 capture of them, or in the maintaining of their posi- 

 tion on the ground or elsewhere when in search of 

 that food, these birds have none, as those organs 

 merely perform in concert with the bill the operation 

 of digging the burrow. Thus, in their feeding, which 

 is the habit that stamps the leading character upon 

 all animals, the bee-eaters are reduced to two instru- 

 ments only the v.-ings to bear them to their prey, 

 and the bill wherewithal to seize it. Each of these 

 instruments is, however, of so superior a character 

 that it performs its labour most effectively, and the 

 one does not interfere with the other, for the feeding 

 of the bird never interrupts its flight. 



As these birds feed by day only, and chiefly when 

 the weather is fine, they are more completely children 

 of the sun than any birds with which we in our north- 

 ern climates are acquainted. 



The colouring of the plumage of birds, unquestion- 

 ably depends upon the sun, because they are gay 

 and glossy in proportion as they are exposed to the 

 action of that luminary ; but the light of the sun 

 must have a substance upon which it can act ; and it 

 appears to act most powerfully upon the firm feather 

 which grows slowly, and, in the first instance, under 

 cover. The colouration is an after process, though 

 an obscure one, and one upon which it does not 

 appear easy to get more information ; but it has no 

 apparent connexion with the colour of the egg ; for 

 the bee-eaters have, in one or other of the species, 

 all the colours of the rainbow, as brilliant as in the 

 rainbow itself, arid yet the eggs are white. Whether 

 the bright colours are less sentient to the sun than 

 the more sober hues of the birds of cold climates, 

 we are unable to tell ; but the smooth surface, and 

 metallic lustre must reflect the light, as well as 

 decompose it by that refraction which shows the 

 colours ; arid we find the same kinds of tint and 

 gloss in the day-insects of sunny climes, as in the 

 birds of the same. We may therefore conclude that 

 the splendent plumage of these birds answers as a 

 sort of protection against the ardour of the sun, just 

 in the same manner as the half-furry clothing of the 

 northern owls protects them against the pelting sleet 

 and the driving snow, or as the down upon sea birds 

 protects them against the action of the water. 



Thus formed, thus armed, and thus defended, the 

 bee-eaters are sent abroad to restrain the superabund- 

 ance of those two-winged and membranous-winged 



(hymenopterous) insects especially,(tlioii!rli their feed- 

 ing is not confined exclusively to these), which are 

 abroad during the day in warm climates, and of these 

 insects the numbers are immense ; and as is the case 

 with all numerous classes in which the principle of 

 life is more than usually active, and which inhabit 

 regions where the elements second and further that 

 activity, they would in a short time usurp the general 

 dominion, if it were not that their restrainers are in 

 proportion to the excess of their energy. If we take 

 the old continent southward of the parallel already 

 stated, which is the limit northward whereof these 

 birds only straggle, and that rarely, we find them 

 increase in numbers as we approach the tropics, and 

 become most numerous in the intertropical latitudes. 

 They are met with throughout Africa, in Asia, south 

 of the central deserts, in Nesv Holland, in the Ori- 

 ental Archipelago (which seems to be in an especial 

 manner the head-quarters of the more brilliant air- 

 birds}, and they range far and wide among the 

 clustered islands, which so beautifully diversity the 

 wide expanse of the Pacific with their verdant sur- 

 faces. None of the numerous species is found in any 

 part of the American continent, the analogous place 

 in nature there being supplied by the genus Prionites, 

 which resemble the bee-eaters in some respects, but 

 differ very much from them in others. The com- 

 parison of these two genera of birds might, if followed 

 out, lead to some important conclusions respecting the 

 tropical parts of the continents themselves , and one 

 of these would probably be found to be that the 

 eastern continent abounds much more in sweet 

 substances than the western, while the forests in 

 the richer parts are less close and tangled. We 

 have corroborative evidence in some of the charac- 

 teristic mammalia, as in the long-armed apes of the 

 East, and the sloths of the West ; and it is not a little 

 remarkable, that there is something like the same 

 kind of analogy between the genus Merops, and the 

 genus Priorities, as between these two genera of 

 mammalia; the tree-mammalia of the East have long 

 arms, and the air-birds long wings; and both are 

 rapid in their several kinds of motions ; the tree- 

 imumnalia of the West have short-arms, and the birds 

 which most resemble the bee-eaters have but feeble 

 wings, and both they and the mammalia of the same 

 localities are rather slow in their motions. 



The bee-eaters are nowhere birds of the desert, 

 neither do they remain after drought has burned up 

 the vegetation in districts whore that is one of the 

 alternations of season. In order that the insects 

 upon which they feed may exist, there must be vege- 

 tation, and consequently humidity. Hence it is only 

 by the banks of perennial streams that they can have 

 permanent abodes, or along the margins of the sea in 

 peculiar situations. The great majority of them are, 

 therefore, in so far at least, migratory ; but theirs is 

 altogether a different kind of migration from that of 

 the birds with which we are acquainted. The 

 migration which we know, is northward in the sum- 

 mer and southward in the winter, constant to those 

 seasons, and not varying much as to the period of 

 time at which it takes place. It is a migration, gene- 

 rally speaking, in the direction of the meridian, and 

 its extreme limits are the equator and the poles. 

 The migration of the bee-eaters, (and various other 

 tropical birds, participate in it along with them,) is a 

 migration entirety tropical, and does not necessarily 

 follow any general direction, or take place regularly 



