202 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
BEE-EATER 
Cosmcerops ornatus ornatus 
With an almost swallow-like grace in the air, which 
shows off admirably in turns and flashes the beautiful 
metallic blue-green colours of its plumage, the Bee- 
eater will be quickly recognised again, when once 
seen. The two long projecting tail-feathers mark it 
out from all other birds of similar size. 
To the Geelong district it is an infrequent visitor, 
for though an " infra-Australian " migrant, its limits 
are restricted, and it rarely comes south of the Dividing 
Range. One reason may be that the sandy banks in 
which it tunnels, to make its nest, are more plentiful 
in the Riverina and Northern Victoria (its chief 
breeding-places) than farther south. It does, how- 
ever, reach us sometimes. On October 28th, 1893, 
I saw a pair in a thickly wooded paddock at the 
corner of the Grub Lane and the Swan Bay Road, 
not far from Drysdale, in sandy country where they 
possibly nested ; that was my first and last experience 
of them. 
Mr. Mulder has a specimen which was shot on the 
Avalon Estate, Lara ; and he tells me that many 
years ago Mr. Noble, at Charlemont, Bream Creek, 
lost a lot of bees through the depredations of Bee- 
eaters. In 191 1 they were reported as having visited 
Leopold. 
