THE BEE-EATER. 65 



in the warmer parts of the Old World. Not only is it rich in 

 colour and delicately shaped, but it is most graceful in its move- 

 ments, sweeping through the air with the ease and rapidity of 

 tlie swift, and much resembling that bird in the character of its 

 flight. 



It is not a large bird, being about the size of the common thrush, 

 and formed in a more slender manner. Its feathers are coloured 

 in the most exquisite manner, green, azure, yeUow, orange, and 

 chocolate-brown, being mixed in a singularly harmonious manner, 

 and relieved by a little white on the forehead, and a narrow band 

 of deep blue-black under the throat. When the sunbeams fall 

 on these gorgeously decorated feathers, the effect is magnificent 

 in the extreme, for there is not only the light azure hue which 

 gives to our kingfisher so brilliant an aspect, as it darts along in 

 its meteor-like flight, but with every movement of the bird the 

 colours change like those of " shot " silk. 



The peculiarly graceful flight of these birds is calculated to 

 display their lovely colours to the best advantage, and as they are 

 partially gregarious in their habits, and love to assemble in little 

 flocks, they afford a magnificent spectacle as they sweep through 

 the air in devious flight, crossing and recrossing each other's 

 track, rising and sinking on facile wing, wheeling swiftly, as 

 some more active insect strives to escape from the lovely de- 

 stroyers, and ever and anon shooting with arrowy speed as their 

 ruby-cinctured eyes catch a glance of some distant prey. Were 

 it not for their harsh, screaming notes, they would seem almost 

 too beautiful to belong to this world. The splendour of their 

 plumage is quite tropical, and though the Bee-eater may not 

 possess the metallic radiance of the humming-bird, the extreme 

 beauty of the silken plumage, which shines in the sunbeams like 

 spun glass, cannot be surpassed, and is far too subtle to be 

 approached by human art. The greatest master of the brush, 

 aided by all the resources of the chemist, can do no more than 

 indicate the wondrous beauty of this bird. 



The bird does not restrict itself to insects. My friend, 

 E. Arnold, Esq. tells me that in India, he has seen the Bee-eater 

 catch and devour small fish equal in dimensions to the well- 

 known minnow of England. These fish are eaten by human 

 beings as well as by birds, and seem to be intermediate between 

 the smelt and the whitebait. Among the residents they are 



