COMMON BEE-EATEE. 323 



below, they were most conspicuous and handsome birds. As we examined 

 their nest-holes, they often uttered a note resembling whirr, whirr-rup, or 

 whip, as the cry was prolonged or cut short. They seemed to have 

 favourite perching-places, which were white with their droppings, and on 

 one we found half a dozen castings of beetles' wing-cases, &c. 



The food of the Bee-eater seems exclusively composed of various kinds 

 of insects, especially bees, wasps, locusts, and beetles. It is much disliked 

 by the bee-keeper, and in some cases whole hives are despoiled through 

 its incessant watch for their inhabitants as they pass to and fro. Its food 

 is principally captured ou the wing ; but it not unfrequently searches for 

 it on the ground, or picks it from the leaves and twigs. Irby attributes 

 the Bee-eater's rather early departure from Gibraltar in the autumn to 

 the fact that the flowers are off bloom, the bees have ceased to work, and 

 its principal food is no longer obtainable. 



Of the habits of this bird in Algeria, Dixon writes as follows : — " We 

 met with the Bee-eater specially abundant at Biskra, evidently on migra- 

 tion from its winter-quarters. It was indeed a charming sight to see 

 these birds in scores gliding gracefully over the tall palms or resting on 

 the dead leaf-stems, their brilliant colours coming out in bold relief against 

 the dark- green vegetation. In their flight tbey put me much in mind of 

 Swifts ; but their actions were slower and the birds themselves rather shy. 

 I have frequently seen them glide about for several minutes without any 

 perceptible motion of the wings. The only place in which we saw them in 

 this oasis was the ruins of the large government garden — a place full of 

 luxuriant vegetation and swarming with birds. They were busy hawking 

 for insects and mingling with Swifts and Swallows. The Blue-cheeked 

 Bee-eater also consorts with the present species, but is a much rarer bird." 



Almost directly after their arrival at their breeding-grounds, the Bee- 

 eaters set to work excavating their holes. Many pairs of birds nest side 

 by side, and a bank is often as much tunnelled by them as it is by Sand- 

 Martins. They seem to make a fresh hole every year. Their long 

 slender bill is chiefly employed in this work of excavation, and, according 

 to Irby, is often worn down to half its usual length by the process ! Some- 

 times the bird tunnels as much as eight or nine feet into the solid bank ; 

 and Irby says that if a bank is not available, it will bore almost straight 

 down into the ground. Sometimes the passage is rather irregular, and the 

 first chamber is occasionally connected by a narrow passage with a second. 

 The Bee-eater is a late breeder. When at Kustendji last year, in company 

 with Mr. Young, I dug out, on the 15th of June, half a dozen of their 

 nests from the old Russian trenches formed during the last war between 

 that power and Turkey ; they were from two to four feet from the surface, 

 and penetrated about four feet into the ground, nearly straight and nearly 

 horizontal. Two of the nests we dug out contained eggs, one four and 



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