PICARIsE. 



BEE-EATER. 



435 



MEROPIDJE. 



MEROPS APIASTER, Linnaeus*. 



THE BEE-EATEK. 



Merops apiaster. 



MEROPS, Linnceus\. Beak rather long, hard, slightly decurved, and tapering 

 to a point, the culmen elevated. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, covered by hairs 

 directed forwards. Wings long, of ten primaries ; the first very short, the 

 second the longest, but the third nearly its equal. Tail of twelve rectrices, 

 rather long. Tibiae bare below ; tarsi short, toes small, three before, one behind, 

 the middle united to the outer toe as far as the second joint, and to the inner 

 as far as the first joint. 



No specimen of the Bee-eater is recorded to have heen 

 killed in England! till that exhibited to the Linnean Society 

 by Sir J. E. Smith, which was shot at Mattishall in 

 Norfolk, in June 1793, as Latham (Syn. Suppl. ii. p. 149) 

 says, out of a flight of about twenty, some survivors of which 



* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 182 (1766). f Loc. cit. 



i Cbarleton in 1688 wrote (Onomast. p. 87) of the species "reperitur ... in 

 J#h'aautem rarissime aut nunqnam." The specimen he figured was brought 

 from Italy. 



