368 MEROPID.E. 



myself, beheld them for the first time, was so greatly struck with 

 the beauty of their plumage and bold sweeping flight, as to term 

 them the presiding deities over Egeria's Grotto. Rich as was the 

 spot in historical and poetical associations, it was not less so in 

 pictorial charms ; all was in admirable keeping : — the picturesque 

 grotto with its ivy-mantled entrance and gushing spring ; the grace- 

 fully reclining, though headless white marble statue of the nymph; 

 the sides of the grotto covered with the exquisitely beautiful 

 maiden-hair fern in the richest luxuriance ; the wilderness of 

 wild flowers around the exterior, attracting the bees, on which the 

 Merops was feeding ; and over all, the deep blue sky of Rome 

 completing the picture. 



On the 26th of April, 1841, three bee-eaters coming from 

 the south flew close past H.M.S. Beacon, sailing from Malta 

 to the Morea, but did not alight. We were then about 90 

 miles from Zante (the nearest land), and 130 from Navarino. 

 On the morning of the next day, when 45 miles from Zante, and 

 60 west of the Morea, a bee-eater, coming from the south-west, 

 alighted for a moment on the vessel and then flew towards Zante, 

 in a north-east direction : soon afterwards, a flock consisting of 

 fifteen came from the same quarter, hawked about the lee side of 

 the vessel for a short time, and then proceeded north-east ; an 

 hour after their departure (ten o' clock), a flock of eight appeared, 

 and alighting on a rope astern the ship, remained there for nearly an 

 hour ; they were perched so close together, and so low down on the 

 rope, that by its motion the lowest one was more than once ducked 

 in the water, but nevertheless did not let go its hold, or change the 

 position for a drier one. These birds were but a few yards from 

 the cabin- windows, and looked- so extremely beautiful, that they 

 were compared, by some of the spectators, to paroquets, and 

 not very inaptly on account of their gaudy plumage. After these 

 left us, others were seen throughout the day, but generally singly; 

 they rarely alighted ; all flew in the same course.* 



* When not very far to the westward of Cape Matapan, on the 1st of May, a 

 flock of twenty-nine of the Merops wpiaster flew close past the ship towards the 

 Morea. 



