142 BIEDS 



tember, and caught a blue-tailed bee-eater (Philippinus) . 

 The beautiful little foreigner had been attracted by a large 

 bee's nest in the roof above the nursery. Mrs. Butt 

 kept it in captivity for half an hour in order that by con- 

 sulting her various books of birds she might identify it. 

 Then she gave it food and water, and believing that, as 

 her grounds were densely wooded and far from the road, 

 the little creature might escape the collector's gun, she 

 let it fly. It is, I think, the second recorded instance in 

 the country of the visit of this rare bird to our shore. A 

 former example- was caught a hundred years ago in the 

 same neighbourhood. 



F. E. CAVE. 



December 27, 1902. 



NOTE. I agree with another correspondent that this 

 bird (Merops philippinus) is much more likely to have 

 been the common bee-eater (M. apiaster), thirty and 

 more of which have paid the penalty of seeking sanctuary 

 on our shores. The other record of M. philippinus is 

 rather a doubtful one (Northumberland, 1862), for it is 

 a tropical species. Still, Mrs. Butt may have been right. 

 She deserved a medal in any case. 



A KAEE BIRD 



As so many of your readers are bird-lovers, I feel I 

 must write about a very rare bird which I have seen. 

 My son aged twelve and I were walking in Christ 

 Church meadow in the end of June. We are both fond 

 of watching birds and of reading about them. Just under 

 the " Dead Man's Wall " runs a path which all who 

 know Oxford will remember. At the end of this walk 

 are some big trees, and in the first of these we saw a 

 slender bird with a brownish back, grey on each side of 



