SUMMER VISITORS 99 



hawks flying insects the bee-eater takes up a strategic 

 position on a telegraph wire, a railing, a bare branch or 

 other point of vantage, whence it keeps a sharp look- 

 out for its quarry. When an insect appears it is smartly 

 captured in the air, the mandibles of the bee-eater 

 closing upon it with a snap, audible at a distance of 

 several yards. 



Bee-eaters begin nesting almost immediately upon 

 arrival. The nest is a chamber, rather larger than a 

 cricket ball, which the cock and hen, working turn about, 

 scoop out of a sandbank with beak and claw. The nest 

 chamber communicates with the exterior by a passage 

 about three feet long, so narrow that the bird is unable 

 to turn round in it. Every kind of sandbank is 

 utilised. Numbers of nests are to be found in the 

 mounds that adorn the Lawrence Gardens at Lahore. 

 Others may be seen in the artificial bunkers on the 

 uninviting maidan which is by courtesy called The 

 Lahore Golf Links. The butts on the rifle range are 

 sometimes made use of, the bee-eaters being utterly 

 regardless of the bullets that every now and then bury 

 themselves with a thud in the earth near the nest hole. 



The blue-tailed bee-eater is distinguishable by its 

 larger size, its yellowish throat, and its blue tail. It 

 is not so abundant as the green species, and excavates 

 its nest at a higher level. The note of both kinds of 

 bee-eater is a soft but cheery whistle. 



The honey-suckers (Arachnechthra asiatica) or sun- 

 birds, as they are frequently called, follow hard upon 

 the bee-eaters. As these charming little birds form the 

 subject of a subsequent chapter, it is only necessary 



