BEE-EATER. 221 



Hope it is called Gnat-snapper, and serves as a guide to the 

 Hottentots by directing them to the honey which the bees 

 store in the clefts of the rocks.' 1 It has often been asked 

 how it is that many of our small birds manage to swallow 

 live bees, and even wasps, without appearing to suffer from 

 their powerful stings. I believe that the bird pinches the 

 insect, passing it from head to tail between the points of its 

 mandibles, till by repeated compression, particularly on 

 the abdomen, the sting is either squeezed out, or its muscu- 

 lar attachments so deranged that the sting itself is harmless. 

 I have mentioned that the Bee-eater is common during 

 summer in Greece and the islands of the Archipelago, 

 and in Crete is said to be the most plentiful. It is in this 

 latter island " that the curious mode of bird-catching 

 described by Bellonius is said to be frequently practised 

 with success, viz., a cicada is fastened on a bent pin or 

 fish-hook, and tied to a long slender line. The insect, 

 when thrown from the hand, ascends into the air, and flies 

 with rapidity ; the Merops, ever on the watch, seeing the 

 cicada, springs at it, and swallowing the bait is thus taken 

 by the Cretan boys." 



In the adult male the beak is nearly black ; the irides 

 red ; the lore and ear-coverts black ; forehead tinged with 

 verditer blue, which extends in a line over the eye ; top of 

 the head, neck, back, and wing-coverts, rich reddish brown, 

 passing on the rump to saffron yellow ; primary and 

 secondary quill-feathers greenish blue, the shafts and ends 

 black ; tertials greenish blue, but without dark tips ; upper 

 tail-coverts bluish green ; tail-feathers duck green, the 

 middle pair with narrow ends extending beyond the others ; 

 chin and throat rich saffron yellow, bounded below by a 

 bar of bluish black; breast, belly, and under tail -co verts, 

 verdigris green, tinged with blue ; under wing-coverts fawn 



