BEE-EATER. 



371 



places where they rise, or at least where they assume 

 the majesty of rivers, are not very elevated, and 

 therefore their currents are slow ; and what they take 

 from the uplands in which their feeders rise is not 

 borne onward to the sea, as is the case in such 

 turbulent floods as the Mississippi and the St. Law- 

 rence, but deposited in fertilising mud along all the 

 meadows on their banks ; and, while those floods 

 bring soil they bring vegetation, and also the smaller 

 kinds of life. We have seen that the birds come to 

 perform their portion in this work of exuberant 

 activity; and the antelopes (see ANTELOPE) bound 

 forward to browse the lighter vegetation, while the 

 elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus, are 

 also welcome, and well-served guests at nature's 

 universal table. 



During this season, when there is plenty, and 

 plenty unknown almost in any other clime, by the 

 banks of the rivers, the plains are gradually becoming 

 dry and scorched. There ceases to be food even 

 for a bee in situations where, only a few weeks before, 

 there was abundance, and consequently the bee- 

 eaters betake themselves to the margins of the 

 streams, and there remain while the dry weather 

 lasts ; but the excessive action of nature exhausts the 

 humidity of the soil by a threefold waste : one part 

 of it is evaporated, spreads in the air, and forms dew 

 upon the margin of the desert, so as to preserve for 

 a time there that hard and scattered vegetation 

 which is the food of the antelope and of some other 

 mammalia ; another part of it is taken up by the 

 action of living vegetables ; and a third portion goes 

 for drink to the animated tribes, from the mite upward 

 to the elephant. This rapid action, in many instances, 

 exhausts and withers the surface almost to the river's 

 brink, before the turn of the season comes ; but in 

 the more favoured situations, the pause in nature 

 arising from this cause is brief, and the second flood 

 comes while something yet remains of the abundance 

 of the first 



As that flood swells, and the birds would be driven 

 from their holes in the banks by the rising waters, 

 the uplands, erewhile sterile by the drought, enjoy 

 the rain, and profit by it for some time before it causes 

 any alteration in the river ; so that, by the time the 

 birds are driven from the one locality, the other locality 

 is prepared for their reception and maintenance. The 

 same agent which forces them from the one place fits 

 the other place for receiving them : that agent is the i 

 rain, distributed in its season by those periodical 

 movements of the air, a short account of which will 

 be found in the article ATMOSPHERE. 



The bee-eaters form only one part of this great 

 seasonal action in Africa ; but they form a beautiful 

 and interesting part, and their movements cannot be 

 well understood, or their uses in nature appreciated, 

 without some such allusions as those which have been 

 made. In their other localities, as in India and the 

 Oriental Isles, they are not quite so characteristic of 

 the succession of seasons, neither are they so much 

 so in the narrow part of Africa, southerly toward the 

 Cape of Good Hope, as in the middle latitudes, where 

 the continent is broader. The seasonal action there 

 is chiefly between the sea and the land, and in great 

 part between the one hemisphere and the other; 

 whereas, in central and northern Africa, the action is 

 chiefly between the thirsty desert and the fertile 

 plains along the rivers. Therefore, all the birds and 

 other animals which resort to Africa by migration, 



or migrate seasonally from one part of it to another, 

 have an African history somewhat different from that 

 which even the same species have in other parts of the 

 world. 



There are still some African species, which we may 

 notice on account of the beauty of their colours. 



RED-HEADED BEE-EATER (Mcrops rufcapttlus). 

 This species is about eleven inches long, and eighteen 

 in the expanse of the wings. Its colours are : the upper 

 part bright green, with metallic lustre ; the under part 

 greenish yellow,glossed with rose-coloured reflections ; 

 the head maroon red, with green reflections, which co- 

 lour also extends in part over the nape ; the eye-streak 

 black, a portion over the eyes white, and the throat 

 bright yellow. This species, which, from the measure- 

 ment stated, is of considerable size, is one of the most 

 beautiful of birds. Its colours are equally remarkable 

 for the purity with which they show an entire tint in 

 some directions of the light, and for the contrasts 

 which different positions of the light bring out. It is 

 also very compact and handsome in its form. The 

 colours of the female are not so bright as those of the 

 male, and the size is rather inferior. 



TARVA BEE-EATER (Merops hirundinaceus). This 

 species gets its trivial name from flying rather higher, 

 and having more the habits of a swallow than many 

 of the genus. It is by no means rare in southern 

 Africa, and is the species which is there known as 

 the "gnat-snapper," though that name is given to 

 bee-eaters generally by the colonists at the Cape. 

 This species is of a clear yellowish green on the 

 upper part, and pure green on the under; the throat 

 yellow, with a blue collar ; the rump and wing 

 coverts blue ; the eye-streak, the bill, and the feet, 

 black ; the tail is very long, and much forked ; and 

 the bird wheels about in the air much in the manner 

 of the swallows. 



THE EYE-BROWED BEE-EATER (Mcrops m/perci- 

 liosui) is an inhabitant of Madagascar, and about 

 eleven inches in length. The upper part is dull 

 green, but brighter towards the rump. There is a large 

 streak of black proceeding from the base of the bill 

 over the eye to the throat, where the streaks unite 

 and form a gorget of maroon brown, the throat being 

 pale yellow, and the border of the streak greenish 

 white. The top of the head is brown, with reflections 

 of very brilliant green. The quills are green ; the 

 covert green, margined with brown and tipped with 

 black ; the bill is black, and the feet brown. This is 

 also a very beautiful species. 



We shall now notice one or two of the species 

 which are described as being natives of the Asiatic 

 isles. 



FIVE-COLOURED BEE-EATER (Merops qilinticolor. 



This species inhabits the Spice islands. It is about 

 eight inches in length, bright maroon brown on the 

 tipper part, and blue mottled with yellow on the 

 under ; the scapulars and coverts are bright green ; 

 the rump and part of the quills blue ; the throat 

 yellow, with a black collar ; the bill black, and the 

 feet yellow. 



GREEN-COLLARED BEE-EATER (Merops viridis 

 torquata). This is an Indian species, about eleven 

 inches in length. It is green on the upper part, but 

 clouded with ash colour, and greenish white on the 

 under ; the forehead sea-green ; the throat pale yellow ; 

 the upper coverts green, bordered with brown ; the 

 under coverts paler ; the bill and feet black. 



SUMATRAN BEE-EATER (Merops Sumatranus}, of 

 H H2 



