148 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
along the Bar-El-Wady, doubtless nesting in its steep 
mould banks. 
A hen bird, shot on the roth of May, was of a very re- 
markable blue tint. If it had not been paired with a cock 
of the ordinary colour, I should have set it down as a dis- 
tinct species. It is probably this variety of hue which has 
gained the Blue-cheeked Beeeater and the Little Green 
Beeeater so many cognomens. 
35. BEEEATER, Merops apiaster, Linn. 
First seen on the roth of April, and soon became very 
common to the exclusion of its Blue-cheeked cousin. The 
last week of the month in particular, flocks were to be 
heard all day at a great height migrating. Their call re- 
sembles that of the Sandgrouse, and like those birds they 
are oftener heard than seen. Towards evening they fly 
lower, and at sunset they are one of the first birds to go to 
roost in large troops upon the Sont trees. 
The roof of the mouth is semi-transparent, as is the case 
with some other birds of large gape. The tongue is split 
into two or three points, and the beak is very sticky. The 
thighs are bare. They are very easy birds to skin, and we 
preserved a large number of the three sorts of Beeeaters. 
First arrivals were not so bright as some which were ob- 
tained later. Captain Shelley says the greater number do 
not remain to breed, and I only saw one in June. In some 
examples the centre tail feathers taper more than in others. 
A short time ago a consignment of a thousand arrived in 
England to make plumes !* 
* The first known British specimens of the Beeeater were shot in 
Norfolk in 1794. One of them was given by Mr. Thomas Talbat of 
Wymondham to Sir J. E. Smith, who after lending it to Mr. Lewin to 
take its portrait (B.B., 11, p. 28) and exhibiting it to the Linnean Society, 
gave it—according to the late Mr. Lombe’s MS.—to Lord Stanley, and 
I_suppose it is now in the Museum at Liverpool. 
