THE BEE-EATER. 41 
Family—MEROPIDAE. 
THE BEE-EATER. 
Merops aptaster, LINN. 
XTREMELY beautiful as this bird is, it is unfortunately neither a 
common nor resident species with us. On the Continent its distribution 
does not frequently extend so far to the north as Northern Germany, whilst in 
Russia it is not known to breed above lat. 524°, it has nevertheless straggled 
northwards even to within the Arctic Circle: to the south of Europe, however, it 
is a regular summer visitor, being extremely abundant in Spain, the Mediterranean 
basin, and North Africa; it also visits Madeira and the Canaries. To Egypt it 
appears to be chiefly a visitor on migration, although a few pairs remain there to 
breed: it winters in South Africa. Its Asiatic range extends in summer through 
Palestine, Asia Minor, Persia, and Cashmere, and when on migration it visits 
Afghanistan, North-western India, and Sind. 
This species has generally occurred in Great Britain and Ireland during the 
spring migration, and usually in small flocks; its visits have been most frequent 
to the southern counties both of England and Ireland, but three or four examples 
have been reported as having been taken in Scotland. 
The adult male has the forehead close to the bill white, shading at the back 
into a belt of viridian green; crown, nape, and front of mantle chestnut; lower 
mantle paler, shading into tawny yellow on the back and rump; scapulars whitish. 
Wings variable blue-green; quills tipped with dark brown; secondaries broadly 
belted with chestnut; tail bluish-green, the two central feathers tipped with black ; 
lores and ear-coverts black; cheeks greenish-blue; chin and throat yellow, bounded 
by a black collar; under parts from collar glistening greenish-blue; bill black; 
feet reddish-brown ; iris red. The female nearly resembles the male, but is slightly 
duller and has the two central tail-feathers shorter. The young are much duller, 
chiefly greenish-brown above, the tawny yellow of the back and rump are replaced 
by pale green, and the chestnut is wanting; on the under parts the black collar 
across the back of the throat is wanting: the tail-feathers are also barely longer 
than the others. 
The Bee-eater is essentially a gregarious bird; not only when on ‘migration, 
VoL. 1 H 
