114 BRITISH BIRDS EGGS. 
Famiry MEROPIDA. 
COMMON BEE-EATER. 
MEROPS APIASTER, Linn. 
Pl. XVIL,, fig. 6. 
Geogr. distr.—Southern Europe generally in summer ; Western Asia 
and throughout Africa to the Cape of Good Hope: rare in Great Britain. 
Food.—Insects and berries. 
Nest.—A mere chamber hollowed out of the earth, and about a foot 
in diameter, at the end of a horizontal hole (or tunnel) three to four 
feet in length, and gradually enlarged from the entrance, the eggs 
being deposited upon the soil. 
Position of nest.—In a bank, sand-hill, or cliff, usually overhanging 
a stream, though sometimes at a distance from water. 
Number of eggs.—5-8 ; usually 6. 
Time of nidification.—V1 ; early in June. 
This species arrives in April or May, and leaves again in 
July, August, or September, though specimens are noted 
as having been shot in Great Britain as late as October. 
It appears to be extremely rare in this country, and there- 
fore, though a summer visitor, it is hardly surprising that 
only one instance of its supposed nesting in our country is 
recorded; moreover, of those birds which have been 
obtained, as Newton has pointed out (Yarrell’s Hist. Brit. 
Birds, 4th ed., p. 488), ‘‘ most of the dated captures have 
occurred between the end of April and beginning of May, 
so that a majority of the examples which have visited us 
have doubtless been seeking a breeding quarter.”’ 
Mr. Seebohm, in his ‘ History of British Birds,’ vol. ii., 
pp. 328-4, thus describes the taking of the nest of this 
species :—‘‘ 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 the other six, all fresh. The old nests con- 
tained nothing but fine earth and decomposed castings. 
The eggs in the four clutch were on the bare earth ; those 
in the six clutch were surrounded with beetle-cases and 
wings of dragonflies. The latter did not appear to have 
been swallowed; so that it seems probable that the male 
feeds the female on the nest. The birds sat very close, and 
did not leave the hole until it was half dug out.” 
