368 
MEEOPIM. 
myself, beheld them for the first time, was so greatly struck with 
the beauty of their plumage and bold sweeping flight, as to term 
them the presiding deities over Egeria's Grotto. Rich as was the 
spot in historical and poetical associations, it was not less so in 
pictorial charms ; all was in admirable keeping : — the picturesque 
grotto with its ivy-mantled entrance and gushing spring ; the grace- 
fully reclining, though headless white marble statue of the nymph; 
the sides of the grotto covered with the exquisitely beautiful 
maiden-hair fern in the richest luxuriance ; the wilderness of 
wild flowers around the exterior, attracting the bees, on which the 
Merops was feeding ; and over all, the deep blue sky of Rome 
completing the picture. 
On the 26th of April, 1841, three bee-eaters coming from 
the south flew close past H.M.S. Beacon, sailing from Malta 
to the Morea, but did not alight. We were then about 90 
miles from Zante (the nearest land), and 130 from Navarino. 
On the morning of the next day, when 45 miles from Zante, and 
60 west of the Morea, a bee-eater, coming from the south-west, 
alighted for a moment on the vessel and then flew towards Zante, 
in a north-east direction : soon afterwards, a flock consisting of 
fifteen came from the same quarter, hawked about the lee side of 
the vessel for a short time, and then proceeded north-east ; an 
hour after their departure (ten o'clock), a flock of eight appeared, 
and alighting on a rope astern the ship, remained there for nearly an 
hour ; they were perched so close together, and so low down on the 
rope, that by its motion the lowest one was more than once ducked 
in the water, but nevertheless did not let go its hold, or change the 
position for a drier one. These birds were but a few yards from 
the cabin-windows, and looked so extremely beautiful, that they 
were compared, by some of the spectators, to paroquets, and 
not very inaptly on account of their gaudy plumage. After these 
left us, others were seen throughout the day, but generally singly; 
they rarely alighted ; all flew in the same course.* 
* When not very far to the westward of Cape Matapan, on the 1st of May, a 
flock of twenty-nine of the Merops apiaster flew close past the ship towards the 
Morea. 
