30 
BEE EATER. 
2. p. 1099. — -Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 132. — Id. Vbg. Deut. 1. t. Heft. 
10. male and female. — Frisch. Vbg. t. 221. the female, t. 222. male. — Yellow- 
throated Bee-eater, Lath. Syn. 2. p. 678. — Common Bee-eater, Will. (Ang.) 
p. 147. — Alhin, 2, t. 44. — Linn. Trans. 3. p. 333. — Lath. Syn. 2. p. 667. — 
Id. Supp. p. 119. — Gen. Hist. 4. 118. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — Id. Supp. — 
Shaw’s Zool. 8. p. 152. — Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 90. — Selby, pi. 41. pt. 1. p. 
123. * 
The common Bee Eater is the only one, out of twenty-three known 
species, that has ever made its appearance in England. 
As we never had an opportunity of examining more than one which 
was killed in this country, which varied hut little from the description 
given by Latham, we shall take the liberty of borrowing it from that 
author. 
It measures from bill to tail ten inches. The bill is an inch and three 
quarters in length, and black ; the base of the upper mandible covered 
with dirty-white feathers ; the irides are red ; the forehead is of a blue- 
green colour, behind it green ; the top of the head chestnut, tinged with 
green ; hind-head and upper part of the neck chestnut, growing paler 
towards the back ; from the bill to the hind-head is a black stripe, passing 
through the eyes ; the back and scapulars are very pale yellow, tinged 
with both chestnut and green ; rump and upper tail coverts blue-green, 
with a yellow tinge ; the throat is yellow ; the under part of the body 
blue-green, growing paler towards the belly ; the lesser wing coverts are 
dull green ; the quills, for the most part, sea-green without, and many 
of the inner ones rufous ; the first very short, the second longest of all ; 
the tail is wedge-shaped, and consists of twelve feathers, the shafts of 
which are brown above, and whitish beneath ; the two middle feathers 
are sea-green, with a shade of rufous ; the rest the same, but margined 
with cinereous within ; the two middle feathers exceed the outer ones by 
three quarters of an inch ; the legs are of a reddish brown, claws reddish 
black. 
This bird does not appear to have been noticed in England till within 
these few years. In the third volume of the Linnsean Transactions, an 
account is given of one of this species having been shot (for the first 
time in Great Britain) in July, 1794, near Mattishall, in the county of 
Norfolk ; which specimen was exhibited before the Linnaean Society. 
A flight of about twenty was seen in June ; and the same flight probably 
(much diminished in number) was seen passing over the same spot in 
October following. Of late years several have been killed in England. 
The Merops apiaster is an inhabitant of various parts of the Eu- 
ropean continent. They are not uncommon in the south of France, and 
in Italy, as well as in the islands of the Mediterranean. It has also 
been seen in Germany, and in Sweden, but no where so plentiful as in 
