40 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



FAMILY MEROPID^. 



NOT only Seebohm, but Swaiuson before him, united the Bee-eaters and 

 Rollers under one family name ; but considering the structural differences 

 between the two groups, it is certainly more convenient to keep them separate. 



The Bee-eaters may readily be distinguished from the Rollers by the long 

 curved bill, b\- the short first primar}', .and by having the central (instead of the 

 external) tail-feathers frequently elongated. 



Jerdon says of this family : — " The Bee-eaters form a group of beautiful birds 

 peculiar to the warm regions of the old world, one or two extending in summer 

 into the temperate parts. Green is the predominant colour of their plumage, 

 varied with blue, yellow, and chestnut. They feed on insects, often on wasps and 

 bees, hence their common name in English and other European languages, 

 and they always capture them in the air.* They usually crush their insect prey 

 when the}^ seize it, killing it at once, and thus do not get stung. Their flight is 

 easy and graceful, and at times very rapid. They breed in holes, in banks of 

 rivers chiefly. In India they are popularly known as Flycatchers. 



They have a doubly emarginated sternum, a longish heart-shaped tongue, a 

 membranous stomach, short intestines, and coeca of the same dimensions as in the 

 Cuculina:, etc. Their skin is remarkably thick." 



The wings of the Bee-eaters are long and pointed, with ten primaries as in 

 the Rollers, but the bastard primary is very small. There are upwards of thirty 

 species of this family, but only one well authenticated species is known to visit 

 the British Islands, and onl}' as a straggler to our shores, nevertheless Lord 

 Lilford has brought forward evidence, which (although far from conclusive) seems 

 to point to the bare possibility of the bird having nested with us on one occasion. 



The nest in its character is not altogether unlike that of the Kingfisher, being 

 bored b}^ the bird itself, and consisting of a long tunnel ending in an enlarged 

 chamber in which the pure white eggs are laid upon the " castings " or ejected 

 indigestible portions of the food of the parent-birds. 



This is not strictly correct, as they have beeu seen to pick up insects. — A G.B. 



