THE EMERALD MEROPS 209 



of its carriage and the perfection of its proportions. 

 Were I to string together all the superlatives that I 

 know, I should scarcely convey an adequate im- 

 pression of the grace of its movements. I can but try 

 to make the bird recognisable, so that the reader may 

 see its beauties for himself. 



He should look out for a little green bird with a 

 black beak, slender and curved, and a tail of which 

 the two middle feathers are very attenuated and project 

 a couple of inches as two black bristles beyond the 

 other caudal feathers. The bird should be looked for 

 on a telegraph wire or the bare branch of a tree, for 

 the habits of bee-eaters are those of fly-catchers. The 

 larger species prey upon bees, hence the popular name, 

 but I doubt whether the little Merops viridis tackles 

 an insect so large as a bee. It feeds upon smaller 

 flying things, which it captures on the wing. As it 

 rests on its perch its bright eyes are always on the 

 look out for passing insects. When one comes into 

 view, the bird sallies forth. Very beautiful is it as it 

 sails on outstretched wings. The under surface of 

 these is reddish bronze, so that their possessor seems 

 to become alternately green and gold as the sun's rays 

 fall on the upper or lower surface of its pinions. Its 

 long mandibles close upon its prey with a snap suffi- 

 ciently loud to be audible from a distance of five or 

 six yards. This one may frequently hear, for bee- 

 eaters are not shy birds. They will permit a human 

 being to approach quite near to them, as though they 

 knew that the fulness of their beauty was apparent 

 only on close inspection. 



