38 
Field Notes jrom Mashonaland. 
have lived long in any case, but an insectivorous bird to be dieted 
on bread and mealies in an overturned soap-box for a cage did 
not appeal to me, neitlier, I thought, would it to the Bee-eater, 
which was destroyed directly it was brought to me, as its wing 
was too badly damaged to even try and keep it temporarily till 
it was well enough to be liberated. Bee-eaters are the most 
wonderful blending of colours, these charming little birds of 
the spruits. 
The swallow-like tail is green, tipped with metallic blue; 
blue at the top of the tail; blue and greenish breast; blue wings 
with ruddy-colcured primaries; buff running up to purplish-terra- 
cotta to the forehead, which is green; eyeband black; eye ruby; 
bib chrome-yellow. 
The Bee-eater flight is rather like that of a swallow, but 
it has the characteristic trait of the Miiscicapidoc — that of 
returning to the stump or other post of outlook directly they 
have caught their prey. He sits motionless on his post of 
outlook until some winged insect comes within range, when he 
is off and back again almost before one realises he has left his 
point of vantage. 
The -Scarlet Bishop is another " jewel of the spruit," with 
his courting dress of vermilion and black; he is a rival to the 
Bee-eater in a colour competition, but " comparisons are 
odious." 
The call of the veldt is one of the things which is unex- 
plainable, but no one, I think, could fail to be bitten by a 
landscape garden as far as one could see; no landscape gardener, 
as a matter of fact, could compete with even the tiniest bit of it. 
with its purple hills in the distance and an African sky, the 
spruits with their blue water-lilies, rock and kopjes covered with 
their flora-fauna of gold, russet-green, and grey, to say nothins;' 
of various creepers, the wildness of it all, and the atmosphere of 
the whole of the surroimdings could never be conveyed to 
anyone on paper or by word of mouth; it is indescribable, but 
if you have ever been to Africa, no matter to South or East 
Africa, you will return if you are a nature-lover. 
Another bird, or rather two of them, which were down 
at the spruit were two Herons, but instead of being the bluish 
colours of the British Heron, they were drab, dull-looking birds 
of brown and grey; much taller than our Heron, and infinitely 
