396 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



ilar insects, which are seized on the wing. In districts with a flourishing bee-culture 

 they become exceedingly injurious, and are therefore eagerly persecuted, the more so 

 since their flesh is palatable, and their gaudy plumage in high demand by both civ- 

 ilized and savage belles for ornament. The bees are mostly swallowed whole, and it 

 is very remarkable that the birds do not seem to be hurt by the sting, the more so 

 since we know instances of many small birds having been killed by swallowing such 

 poisonous insects ; and Naumann states that experiments with ducks had a similar 

 fatal end. 



The breeding habits of the bee-eaters are peculiar. They nest usually in colonies, 



FIG. 196. Merops apiaster, bee-eater. 



digging deep tunnels in steep, sandy river-banks. The tunnel, which is often nine to 

 ten feet long, opens into a breeding-chamber, where the bird deposits four or five white 

 eggs on the bare soil. According to Colonel Irby the beak is used for digging the 

 holes, and he asserts that the bills, after the boring, are sometimes worn away to less 

 than half their ordinary length. Of the common European bee-eater (Merops apiaster) 

 it is said that when, in winter, it goes to South Africa, it rears there another brood of 

 young ones; but Mr. Seebohm suggests that there exists a South African colony, the 

 breeding range of which is overlapped by the winter range of the northern colony. 



Referring to the wood-cut for the form of a typical Merops, a fuller impression of 

 the beauty of these birds may be had by compai-ing it with the following description 



