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THE AZURE-THROATED BEE-EATER. 
plumage is remarkably handsome ; being painted with rich, and at the same time with 
extremely delicate, hues of many colors. Green predominates throughout the group, a 
verditer-blue seeming to be generally mixed with the green. Some species, such as the Nubian 
Bee-eater (. Merops nubius), are clothed in bright red ; while others, such as the Bose-breasted 
Night-feeder ( Nyctiornis amicta ), are decorated with a rich rose tint upon the face and 
breast. 
NUBIAN BEE-EATER .— Merops nubicus. 
The common Bee-eatee is very frequently found in many parts of the European Con- 
tinent. 
Undaunted by the poisoned weapons of the wasp, hornet, or bee, the bird makes many 
a meal upon these insects, contriving to swallow them without suffering any inconvenience 
from their stings. It is probable that there may be some peculiarity in the structure of this 
and several other birds, that renders them indifferent to the poisonous influence of the sting, 
for it is difficult to account for their immunity on any other theory. Mr. Yarrell imagines 
that the Bee-eater renders its prey harmless by much pinching and biting, and that by 
“repeated compression, particularly in the abdomen, the sting is either squeezed out, or its 
muscular attachments so deranged, that the sting itself is harmless.” 
The truly magnificent Azure-throated Bee-eater is an inhabitant of India, and is found, 
although very rarely, in the interior of that country. 
It is a very rare bird, perhaps not so much on account of the actual paucity of its 
numbers, as from its extreme shyness, and the nature of the localities where it makes its 
residence. The home of this bird is always in the deepest recesses of the vast Indian forests, 
and in spite of its glowing colors and noisy tongue, it is so wary and fearful of man that 
it is seldom seen. When fairly discovered, however, it often falls an easy prey to the native 
hunter on account of the extreme nervousness of its nature. The report of a gun in close 
proximity will have such an effect upon its nervous system as to afflict it with a momentary 
paralysis, and it sometimes happens that in the great hunting expeditions of the native chiefs, 
