BEE-EATER. 



3G7 



at the same time of the year. It is true that on their 

 northern limits (their only southern limit appears to 

 be the sea), they in so far fall into the general 

 economy of the place as to be seen in the warm 

 season in places considerably north of any where 

 they could be looked for, or even where, considering 

 the nature of their food, they could exist in winter. 

 Thus, for instance, the species which is found in the 

 south, and more especially in the south-east ot 

 Europe, does sometimes straggle into the British 

 islands, though its visits are exceedingly rare. It is 

 generally in the county of Norfolk, or Dorset, where 

 they are seen, and those counties are more remarkable 

 perhaps than any other in England, for the appearance 

 of rare birds. There a flock of as many as twenty 

 has been seen at once, about June, and again (though 

 of course the identity of the birds was presumed, not 

 proved) in October ; but where or how they spent the 

 interval is unknown. 



But these occasional migrations northward in sum- 

 mer, taking place as they do upon the mere confines 

 of the proper locality of the genus, are to be consi- 

 dered as anomalies rather than as any part of the 

 general habits of the birds. Where they are "at 

 home," so to express it, their migrations are regulated 

 entirely by the alternations of the tropical seasons, 

 that is, of the rains and the drought ; arid as these 

 depend in a great measure upon situation, it some- 

 times happens that at the same time of the year, the 

 bee-eaters shall be arriving at the one of two places, 

 and departing from the other, though both places are 

 situated under exactly the same parallel ot latitude. 

 Thus it sometimes happens, that in those parts of 

 peninsular India, where the one coast receives only 

 the rain of the south-western monsoon, and the other 

 coast that of the north-eastern, the bee-eaters migrate 

 on the parallel of latitude from the one side of the 

 peninsula to the other. 



In the Oriental Archipelago, migration is, upon the 

 whole, less necessary to them, because, for reasons in 

 part explained in the article ATMOSPHERE, many 

 portions of the surface there, are perpetually verdant. 

 Bee-eaters, as well as other species of birds, do, how- 

 ever, migrate from those favoured isles ; but they may 

 be said to do so rather for the purpose of gathering in 

 an abundant harvest in other places, and again return- 

 ing when the pastures which they visit are bare, than 

 from any absolute want of food in their island homes. 

 Many parts of New Holland are totally destitute both 

 of insects and their food for a portion of the year, 

 though they produce these abundantly at other times. 

 This is more especially the case in the north-eastern 

 or most tropical part of that vast island. There there 

 are extensive districts, which, when the rains fall, are 

 laid under water ; and as this water evaporates by the 

 action of the sun, a rich vegetation springs up, and then 

 there are insects in myriads. At that season there is 

 food for many bee-eaters ; and where food is abundant 

 nature always provides a corresponding abundance of 

 feeders. When, however, the action of the heat, 

 which is there very intense, and as the bottom of the 

 reflects heat and light, the sea-breeze does not 

 tend to fertilise even the shore, beyond the man- 

 groves which grow in the water, the earth soon 

 becomes burnt up, and there is no insect food, except 

 for the species which inhabit the few hard-leaved trees 

 that can endure such a climate, and these are not the 

 proper food of bee-eaters. Of course there is an 

 arrival and a departure of the birds annually in that 



country, and in all countries in which the seasons 

 are similar. 



In places where, though the plains are burnt up, 

 the rivers do not run wholly dry, the seasonal move- 

 ments of the birds are confined to the country itself. 

 Thus, in southern Africa, where the karroos are rich 

 with leaves, gay with flowers, and abundant in honey, 

 which they always are in the fertile season, the bee- 

 eaters find ample supplies of food over them ; but 

 when the karroos are burnt up, the birds must betake 

 themselves to those places along the banks of the 

 rivers where vegetation is still vigorous, arid food is 

 to be found ; and all places which have their seasons 

 analogous to those of southern Africa, whether they 

 take place at the same time of the year or not, mubt 

 subject the bee-eaters to similar migrations. 



From these few hints some knowledge of the ge- 

 neral haunts of the genus may be inferred ; and, as 

 is the case with all birds, they may be presumed to 

 breed at that place and time of their range where 

 food is most abundant, and the succession of it of 

 longest continuance. 



These migrations give the birds much exercise for 

 their powerful wings, but these are also in constant 

 exercise while they are feeding. Thus, if we except 

 the swallow tribe, we have no birds in temperate cli- 

 mates which find their living by such severe and con- 

 tinuous labour as the bee-eaters. Many of the birds 

 of prey have, no doubt, harder work while they are 

 engaged in it ; but then the capture of an individual 

 furnishes the greater number with a hearty meal ; 

 and the smaller hawks, which occasionally feed on 

 beetles, catch these right and left with their claws as 

 they are flying. But the bee-eaters have no auxiliary 

 to the bill ; they have not the vibmsa; to it like the 

 goat-suckers ; they do not appear to have any gluti- 

 nous secretion in the mouth ; and the probability is 

 that they do not, like many insect-feeding birds, fly 

 with the mouth open when they are feeding. They 

 capture their prey with a snap of the bill, as the 

 swallows do ; but as the food of the swallow is gene- 

 rally stingless, and many of the species on which 

 bee-eaters feed have stings so powerful and so much 

 envenomed, that it would not be very pleasant for 

 the birds to take them alive into the mouth. Any 

 one who has had the mischance to shut his lips on a 

 live wasp can tell how awkward a matter it would be 

 to attempt subsistence by swallowing these creatures 

 alive. It is thus to be presumed that the bee-eaters 

 invariably kill their prey by the snap of the bill, that 

 is, by bruising it between the tomia the instant it is 

 touched. 



This renders their hunting (or hawking, if the word 

 is more appropriate) a matter of course. Those insec- 

 tivorous birds which hawk sightless, or at random, as 

 one may say, must receive the insect in any way and 

 in any part of the open gape to which the current, 

 produced by the flight of the bird, happens to direct 

 it. But the bee-eaters, and probably also the swallow 

 tribe, must follow their prey by sight. The vision of 

 swallows, and especially that of swifts, is known to 

 be exceedingly delicate, especially as regards length 

 of distance at which a minute object may be seen. 

 But is probable that the power, especially the near- 

 sight, or microscopic power of the bee-eaters, is much 

 greater, because they have to seize the insect in a 

 particular manner, which is not necessary in the 

 others ; and if we suppose a bird careering at the 

 rate of fifty miles an hour, or probably of more, seeing 



