BEE-EATER. 



369 



front of the hoan wmte, shaded with green ; the eye- 

 streak large and of a black colour ; the quills and 

 coverts olive green; the neck golden yellow, marked 

 in the middle with a half collar of black ; and all the 

 rest of the under part clear aqua-marine, or sea green. 

 The bill black, and the feet brown. These are the 

 colours of the male bird. In the female, the tints, 

 where they resemble those in the male, are duller ; 

 she has a yellowish band underneath the eyes, and 

 the breast shaded with reddish. In the young, the 

 upper part is greenish brown ; they have a reddish 

 streak under the eyes, and are without, the collar 

 which marks the mature bird. The coverts are in 

 them also nearly all of the same length, while in the 

 old birds the middle ones an? longer than the rest. 



These birds are very rare in western Europe, as the 

 southern parts of it are too dry for their habit* ; but, 

 during the summer, they are by no means scarce in 

 the south-east, and they range as far northward as 

 the Don and the Volga, the steep and soft banks of 

 which are drilled as thick with their holes as some 

 banks with us are with the holes of sand martins. 

 They are also abundant on the Lower Danube and the 

 larger branches of that river much more so, indeed, 

 than nearer the Mediterranean, where the weather is 

 more unsettled in the summer, and therefore not so 

 well adapted to their habits. But though they do not 

 take up a regular abode westward of the centre of 

 Russia, northward of the Carpathian mountains, or 

 generally much higher on the Danube than Hungary, 

 they sometimes pay straggling visits to other parts of 

 Europe, as has been mentioned in the case of those 

 seen in Norfolk. Beyond the limits which we have 

 stated they are, however, to be considered as mere 

 stragglers, and the appearance of them in any place 

 one year is no ground for even presuming that they 

 will be found in that, place the year following. 



In all places of Europe they are to be considered 

 merely as summer migrants, and as migrants in lon- 

 gitude more than migrants in latitude. They range 

 from east to west, or rather from south-east to north- 

 west, along the great internal basin, which may be 

 said to extend from the Hindu Koosh to the Carpa- 

 thian mountains, and only partially interrupted by the 

 ridges of Caucasus. It is also probable that from 

 the Oxus, which rises in the Hindu Koosh, and dis- 

 charges itself into the sea of Aral in a direction 

 nearly the opposite of that by whichthe Volga descends 

 to the Caspian, they may pass the gorges of these 

 mountains, and descend the Indus and the other 

 rivers of India, upon the banks of which it is probable 

 that many of them winter. They cannot winter in 

 the country south-eastward of the Caspian, because 

 though that country is very hot in summer, as is the 

 ease with the south and even with the north of 

 Russia, it is cold in winter, the rivers being sometimes 

 completely frozen over as far to the southward as 

 Bokhara, where of course bee-eaters could not find 

 food. The migration of birds along this basin is not, 

 confined to bee-eaters, but applies to many of the 

 most interesting of the rarer insectivorous and aquatic 

 birds which are found in eastern Europe in the sum- 

 mer, but quit that part ere the winter sets in. The 

 pratincole and several of the herons belong to this 

 migration, and some of them occasionally straggle 

 into western Europe, as well as the bee does. The 

 subject is, however, too extensive and too intimately 

 connected with the general economy of r.at.tire in the 

 wide re'/ion to which it refers, for being advan- 



NAT. HIST VOL. I. 



tageously noticed while discussing the habits of "a 

 single species of bird. 



This is the species which has been longest known, 

 and the one to which the name of merops was first 

 given, probably on account of the black streak or 

 division across the eye. The habits of the bird were, 

 however, much misrepresented by the ancients, who 

 made it the type of filial affection, asserting that the 

 young birds fed the mother while she remained at her 

 ease in the security of the nest. There is no bird, and 

 indeed, so far as is known, no animal which has that, 

 habit ; and it would be contrary to the general rule of 

 mere animal nature if they had. The old animal feeds 

 and rears the young ones ; and when it can I'eed and 

 rear no more, its use in the economy of nature may be 

 said to be at an end, and it speedily dies. This general 

 rule is not departed from in the case of the bee-eater, 

 for the old birds of these have to feed their young 

 for a longer period than almost any other species. 



The common bee-eater is also the only one which 

 may be said to have a northern history, as the others 

 have been met with chiefly at the other extremity of 

 what may be considered the '/one of their inhabiting. 



The common bee-eater is so abundant in all the 

 islands of the Archipelago and the Levant as to be 

 one of the most common summer birds. The climate 

 of those islands is very fine ; and as, from their com- 

 paratively small size, no part of them is at any great 

 distance from water, they abound with insects, 

 which afford subsistence to all the species of insecti- 

 vorous birds, especially those which prey on the wing 



In these islands the species under consideration is 

 as plentiful and as familiar in his habits as swallows 

 are with us, only it builds, or rather burrows, in banks 

 remote from human habitations. But, in search of 

 its food, it flies in the close vicinity of houses ; and, 

 in Crete especially, the boys are said to angle for it 

 in rather a curious manner. They catch locusts, or 

 any of the larger winged insects, which have con- 

 siderable power of flight; fasten the insect to a 

 crooked pia or small fish-hook at the end of a line ; 

 and, letting the insect fly from the window, retain 

 the line in their hand. The insect mounts up and 

 endeavours to escape, notwithstanding the weight 

 which it has to drag alter it, and the bee-eater per- 

 ceiving it in the air, snaps at it, is caught by the hook, 

 and dragged home. This is perhaps one of the most 

 singular modes of bird-catching, and yet anglers in 

 this country sometimes catch swallows involuntarily, 

 in a manner nearly similar, by means of their artificial 

 flies; and the wrHer of this article has sometimes 

 been astonished in casting his fly, at throwing a 

 swallow on the water, instead of raising a trout. 

 The swallow in this case no doubt catches the artificial 

 fly while in motion through the air behind the angler ; 

 which in part proves, by the way, that swallows do 

 not catch flies knowing them to be flies, any more 

 than fish do, but that they merely pursue that which 

 they see in motion. Water birds often do the same 

 thing, especially with the larger kinds of flies ; and 

 it is not impossible to catch one of those birds while 

 trying for a salmon. Indeed it appears that most 

 animals which capture prey when it is in motion 

 follow it just because it is moving; for boys some- 

 times catch the common bat by means of the heads 

 of burdock, dipped in powdered whiting to render 

 them more conspicuous. The hooks of these sub- 

 stances grapple the flying membrane of the bat, and 

 thereby destroying its balance, by making one side 

 H H 



