412 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
Most leave in September and there are only odd records after the first week 
in October up to the 22nd. 
Zarudny gives this species as nesting ? and passage migrant ? both of which 
there is no shadow of doubt about and he also definitely states that it is to be 
found in winter, a statement which none of our records bears out ! 
Eleven skins examined: @, Baghdad, 30-7-18; 9, Amara, 9-9-18; ¢, Kurna, 
20-3-18; @, Baghdad, 15-9-17 (P. A. B.); @, Shaiba, 12-9-16, 9, 3-9-16; 
@;, Sera, 2-5-19 (P. Z. C. and R. E. C.); 9, Feluja, 12-4-17; Hindeyeh 
Barrage, 3-6-17 (C. R. P.); Q, Basra, 11-8-19 (L. Home) Amara, 4-4-19 and 
4 in B. M. from Fao. Wings 190-206 mm. 
All are typical xzgyptius ; arenicolor (of Sewertzow : type Joc. Oxus) does not 
appear to me to be a good race so far as I can judge ; one specimen from there 
is certainly large (W. 212) but another is only 202 mm., and specimens from 
Samarkand are no larger than Egyptian ones. 
143. European Bee-eater. Merops apiaster. 
Merops apiaster, L. (Syst. Nat. Ed. x, 1, p. 117, 1758—-S. Europe.) 
To most parts of Mesopotamia this is a common passage migrant but to parts 
of the foot hills it is a summer visitor. It arrives at the end of March and migra- 
tion continues up to the second week in May. It is widely distributed and 
migrating flocks were noted passing over in several localities from Urfa to Fao. 
According to Tomlinson it breeds up the Karun river where he found young 
just hatched at the end of May; up the Kerkha river Cheesman found it gradually 
replacing persicus as a breeding species, and he saw excavations going on at 
Shush on May 2nd, where apiaster alone was breeding in thousands. This re- 
placing of the one species by the other is not universal by any means, as in many 
places throughout their distribution both species breed in the same area. At 
Mosul it evidently breeds, as Sassi records skins thence early in June and it may 
possibly breed at Khanikin (and elsewhere in the hills) where Cheesman saw it 
on May 21st. 
The autumn passage lasts from the first week in September to the first week 
in October. 
Three specimens examined: @, Shush, 3-5-17 (P. Z. C. and R. E. C.); 2 
Baghdad and Amara (P. A. B.) 
144. Persian Bee-eater. Merops persicus. 
Merops persicus persicus, Pall. (Reise (d). versch. Prov. Russ. Reichs. 
ii, p. 708, 1773—Shores of the Caspian). 
Like the Roller this species is a summer visitor in very large numbers and also 
a passage migrant. ‘The first arrive in the middle of March and it becomes com- 
mon by the third week. Migration was seen going or across the head of the 
Persian Gulf on March 20th and April 11th. 
It occurs and breeds throughout our area from Mosul to Fao but at Shush 
Cheesman noted that it was replaced by apiaster, but as persicus breeds in N. 
Persia this must have been a local peculiarity. It breeds in colonies, some of 
them numbering thousands of individuals ; the sites chosen are river and canal 
banks, desert mounds or perfectly flat bare ground. Cheesman noted that at 
the oil fields persicus seemed to prefer a horizontal road passed over by 
caravans and other traffic, while apiaster preferred mounds; Pitman found a large 
colony near Museyib in perfectly flat ground close to a road; the birds were 
swarming over the nest holes like bees ! Sassi describing a similar colony (of 
which he gives a very good photograph) says the nesting ground in the distance 
looked like green pasture with the multitude of birds on it ! Other very large 
colonies exist between Baghdad and Samarra and at Abu Aran near Basra. 
Excavations for the nest-holes were noted on April 19th, and the earliest date 
for eggs is May 5th, but it is not till towards the middle of the month that full 
clutches need be looked for ; six is the normal full clutch, and in one nest of six 
