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B E E - E A T E R. 



a bee at the distance of probably a hundred yards, 

 and coming up with it with such certain aim as to 

 snap it instantly between the cutting edges of its man- 

 dibles, we may easily perceive how wonderful must be 

 the power both of vision and of flight in the bird. 



No human ingenuity could perform such an exploit, 

 even though we leave the prehensile or snapping part 

 of it out of the question, and that is the nicest of the 

 whole. The arrow of Robin Hood or William Tell, 

 or the bullet of the surest marksman that ever drew 

 the trigger of a rifle in the back-woods of America, 

 would have been, or be, altogether unequal to such a 

 feat ; and when we consider that the all-flexible 

 atmosphere is the bow from which the arrowy bird 

 shoots itself, our wonder may well be increased. 

 There is, of course, leeward motion both in the bird 

 and the insect, varying with the strength and direction 

 of the wind, and also of the different specific gravities 

 of the pursuer and the pursued, and the different rates 

 of their motion. When the wind is beyond a certain 

 strength, neither the one nor the other can " take 

 it sideways ; " but bees do fiy, and bee-eaters cap- 

 ture them during light breezes, though, as we find 

 swifts most assiduous in their lofty hawkings in that 

 tranquil state of the atmosphere which immediately 

 precedes rain, we may conclude that such weather 

 must also afford most successful sport to the bee- 

 eater. 



But even granting that the air is perfectly still, 

 except in so far as the forward rush of the bird pro- 

 duces a current the capture is a very nice, and to 

 our knowledge of mechanics, apparently an impossi- 

 ble operation. The pointed wings, the produced 

 feathers in the tail, the lightness of the feet, the 

 smoothness of the plumage, and the muscular quick- 

 ness of the bird, together with the obedience of the 

 whole to the eye which guides it to its object, work 

 beautifully in concert ; arid when we consider what 

 the bird has to perform, we may well cease to won- 

 der both at the superiority of its organs of aerial 

 motion, and the great length of time, compared with 

 that of mere ground birds, which is spent in elaborat- 

 ing and perfecting them. 



The space to which this article must necessarily be 

 restricted, prevents us from following out this remark- 

 able instance of the beauty and perfection of animal 

 mechanics as it ought to be followed ; but we trust 

 that enough has been said to arouse the attention of 

 the reader to a subject, than which there are few more 

 worthy of being studied. The forms and colours of 

 birds force themselves upon our notice by their grace- 

 fulness and by their beauty ; and we may rest assured 

 that nature never entices us to our disappointment, 

 but that whenever she is more than usually attractive, 

 the lesson which she has to teach us is certain to be, 

 when fully studied, more than usually instructive. 

 Fine as is the organisation of these birds, and perfect 

 as are their movements, they are still wholly made of 

 matter, and moved by such means as matter can be 

 moved by ; and therefore though their action involves 

 a degree of mechanical perfection which we can never 

 hope to equal, or ever nearly approximate, yet still it 

 is mechanical action, arid we may learn much by 

 studying the bird as a model. 



The details of species in this highly interesting 

 genus form a department of study sadly different 

 from the contemplation of the general structure and 

 the habits. The real species, or those which possess 

 all the generic characters, are numerous ; and dif- 



ferent describers have added to the perplexity by 

 mentioning as bee-eaters, birds which may with more 

 propriety be included in other genera ; besides, other 

 than mere size, colour, and locality, the specific dis- 

 tinctions are few, or, strictly speaking, none ; for, 

 though the different terminations of the tails would 

 lead us to suppose that there are differences both in 

 place of abode and in manner of flight, yet these dif- 

 ferences are not established by observed facts ; and 

 though it be true of some other birds that those with 

 square tails are most expert at ascending or descend- 

 ing in their flight ; that those which have the external 

 feathers of the tail much produced, can wheel in the 

 air by turning upon them as pivots ; and that those 

 which have the middle few thus produced, so that the 

 tail is wedee-shaped, are the steadiest upon a line in 

 forward flight ; yet these act in accordance with tin; 

 general structure of the bird, so that we cannot im- 

 plicitly rely upon the analogy in any other. But yet 

 further to perplex us in the details of this genus, the 

 habits of the birds are such that in wild nature the 

 sights of them are but momentary. They are in the 

 air, driving about like fine brands, or pieces of rain- 

 bows, according to their colour ; and they will not 

 perch and occupy themselves so situated till we can 

 minutely examine them. Hence, not a few of the 

 recorded species are no further known than the mu- 

 seum specimens ; and thus, though there is no ques- 

 tion that they exist and exist plentifully in nature, 

 yet all that we know of their history may be learned 

 by simply looking at them. There is, however, one 

 slight advantage in the specific arrangement of these 

 birds, an advantage in which all the birds of warm 

 climates, which have rich and boldly contrasted co- 

 lours, may be said to participate. It is this : their 

 glossy plumage and gay colours are subject to much 

 less variety either in different individuals of the same 

 species, or at different ages, than in birds which are 

 less gorgeous in their attire. The young come forth 

 in mature plumage ; and when they moult afterwards, 

 the process appears to be so gradual, that there is 

 little difference arising from season. Both of these 

 might be expected ; the preparation of the first plum- 

 age seems too laborious a process for being expended 

 upon that which is soon to be replaced by a different 

 one ; and the necessity of these birds to be on the 

 wing when they feed, renders it indispensable that 

 they should be at all times in flying order. Even if 

 they belong to those latitudes in which we could pre- 

 sume a short period when little food is required, still 

 that is not the time at which birds moult ; and in the 

 latitudes which these birds inhabit, there is not even 

 an approximation to any thing like hybernating on 

 the part of any of the feathered tribes. 



From the number of the species, the little that is 

 known of many of them, the similarity of their habits, 

 and the length at which the chief of these have been 

 noticed, we shall give little more than a list of those 

 which are most interesting, beginning with the Euro- 

 pean species. 



COMMON BEE-EATEK (Merops apiastcr). This is 

 a very beautiful species, and certainly one of the 

 finest of all the rare and local birds of Europe. It is 

 about eleven inches in length, but the female, as 

 is the case in most species of the genus, is rather 

 smaller than the male. The extent of the expanded 

 wings is about seventeen or eighteen. The colour 

 on the upper part is of a maroon red, fading into 

 yellowish rust-colour on the middle of the back ; the 



