yellow, distinctly washed with glossy green near the angle of the mouth ; rest of the under surface of 

 the body glossy greenish cobalt, becoming paler on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; under wing- 

 coverts buff; bill black ; feet pale reddish brown ; iris carmine-red. Total length about 10 inches, 

 culmen 1*6, wing 6"1, tail 5'0, tarsus 0'4. 



Female. Resembles the male, but is rather smaller, and duller in colour. 



Young. Resembles the adult, but is altogether much paler and duller in colour. 



Obs. In measurements the variation is, on the whole, not much ; but examples from Africa appear to run 

 somewhat smaller than those from Europe. The variation in size of those I have examined is — 

 culmen 1-5-1-6, wing 5-6-6-1, tail 4-4-5-0, tarsus 0"4. 



Generally distributed in Southern Europe during the summer season, the Bee-eater is only 

 known as a somewhat rare straggler to the central and northern portions ; but it ranges through- 

 out Africa down to the Cape colony, and is found in Western Asia. 



In Great Britain it has occurred on several occasions, but only as a straggler. The first 

 recorded instance of its occurrence appears to have been that of one shot in June 1794, out of a 

 flock of about twenty, near Mattishall, in Norfolk, by the Rev. George Smith, particulars of 

 which were communicated to the Linnean Society by Sir James E. Smith, the President of that 

 Society. Since then there have been numerous instances of its occurrence. Yarrell writes (Brit. 

 B. p. 224), the bird he figured " was shot in May 1827, by the bailiff of Robert Holford, Esq., 

 at Kingsgate, in the Isle of Thanet. This specimen is in the possession of R. B. Hale, Esq., M.P., 

 of Alderley, near Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire, who obligingly allowed me the use of 

 it for this work. One example of the Bee-eater is recorded by Rusticus to have been shot in a 

 garden in the town of Godalming, in Surrey, a few years back ; and a specimen was shot in the 

 autumn of 1839, at Christchurch, in Hampshire, for the knowledge of which I am indebted to 

 the kindness of my friend T. C. Heysham, Esq., of Carlisle. In Dorsetshire a Bee-eater was shot 

 at Chidcock, and is now preserved in the Bridport Museum. Three specimens are recorded by 

 Dr. Edward Moore as having been killed in Devonshire. In Cornwall, according to Mr. Couch, 

 four specimens occurred in the parish of Madern in 1807; and a flock of twelve visited the 

 neighbourhood of Helston in 1828, of which eleven were shot. The only instance I am aware of 

 in which the Bee-eater has occurred in Ireland, is that recorded by Mr. Vigors in the ' Zoological 

 Journal' as having been killed on the sea-shore near Wexford, in the winter of 1820, and pre- 

 served in the collection of James Tardy, Esq., of Ranelagh, near Dublin. Four or five examples 

 of this bird have been obtained in the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk. One killed at Beccles, 

 in the spring of 1825, is in the possession of the widow of the Rev. H. F. Howman. Among 

 the more recent captures of this species are one in Sussex, in 1850, two in Norfolk, and one in 

 Essex, in 1854, and one at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, in June 1855. Mr. Thompson, of 

 Belfast, has referred to one that was shot in October 1832, in the Mull of Galloway." Mr. 

 Stevenson refers to the above-mentioned record of the capture of one in Norfolk in 1794, and 

 writes (B. of Norf. p. 313) as follows: — "The next recorded instance is probably the one men- 

 tioned by Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear as shot near Yarmouth, which came into the possession 

 of Mr. Seaman, of Ipswich ; and in the Museum collection (No. 156) is an immature bird killed 



