THE BEE-EATER. 

 Merops apiaster, Linnaeus. 

 Plate 25. 



Some forty examples of this rare visitant to the British Islands have been ob- 

 tained, one of these having occurred as far north as the Shetlands. It is plentiful 

 in the south European countries, and is found eastwards as far as western 

 Siberia, Afghanistan, and Kashmir. 



The new B.O.U. " List of British Birds " (2nd ed. 1915) states that *' occasionally 

 it is found breeding to the north of its range as far as Silesia and has wandered 

 to almost every part of Europe." It migrates for the winter to tropical and South 

 Africa and India. The Bee-eater usually breeds in colonies, boring deep holes in 

 river banks, and sometimes in open and uneven ground. Referring to the latter 

 breeding-places, Colonel Irby says {The Oritithology of the Straits of Gibraltar^ 

 2nd ed., p. 132) : " The shafts to these nests are not usually so long as those in banks 

 of rivers, which sometimes reach to a distance of eight or nine feet in all ; the end 

 is enlarged into a round sort of chamber, on the bare soil of which the usual four 

 or five shining white eggs are placed." The same writer observed that the bills 

 of the birds, after boring the holes, " are sometimes worn away to less than half 

 their usual length." 



The food consists of winged insects, such as bees and wasps, while its note, 



according to the late Howard Saunders, is " a sharp qtiilp'' 



The female is not so bright as the male, and has the two central tail feathers 

 shorter. 



28 



