The Blue-Tailed Bee-Eater. 



*i 



when we know tliat, willi care, it is possible to ^ci Honey-suckers to live upoji 

 food-mixtures, and Lories ujxni seeds, tlie difficulty appears no longer insuperable. 

 Anyhow we know that Bee-eaters are kept in captivity; for in Dr. Russ' " Hand- 

 buch fiir Vogelliebhaber," p. 340, we read :-" The Common Bee-eater /^Mcro/,^ 

 apiinkrj abundantly sold. (ireen Indian Bee-ealer fill. 7<iri(/,\J has once reached 

 us. In the collection of E. Unden a specimen continued alive for a year. A 

 pleasant loud whistle, often expanded into several harmonies, the song like that 

 of the Laughing-Thrush, it greeted Mr. L. therewith when he brought it food, a 

 singularly well-behaved and loveable cage-bird. Occasional food : bees, wasps, 

 drones, etc., but fed for the greater part of the year upon mi.xed food, and, as a 

 treat, mealworms and currants." 



Although Dr. Russ does not say so, there can be no doubt that the common 

 Bee-eater would thrive upon similar food; but its cry which is said to be "a sharp 

 quilp" would, I fear, never develop into a pleasing song. 



Family— ME R OPID.'E. 



The Blue-Tailed Bee-Eater. 



Merops pki/ippimis, LiNN. 



AN example of this widely distributed oriental species is said to have been 

 shot in Diirham, in August, 1862. Doubtless it was somebod^-'s pet, but 

 having accidentalh- escaped from captivit\- met with that inevitable fate which is 

 constantl}' adding foreign species to the list of so-called " British Birds." I believe 

 that this species has every bit as much right to be called British as the Pine 

 Grosbeak and Scarlet Rose-finch, but in most recent books on British Birds it is 

 merely mentioned in a footnote or at the end of a chapter : of course it is not 

 British, nor are the others in my opiniou. 



