Picaricin Birds. 
99 
The Bee-Eater. 
THE COMMON 
BEE-EATER. 
(Merops apiaster.) 
readily serves to distinguish them from 
other Picarian birds. Their long curved 
bill and flat foot, with the toes joined to- 
gether for some distance, and their ten tail- 
feathers, the two central ones of which are 
generally elongated, are well pronounced 
characters, and in addition to these they 
have the fore part of the breast-bone per- 
forated, so that the feet of the coracoid 
bones meet together through the opening. 
This curious arrangement is found in 
Hoopoes, Hornbills and Game-birds. 
This brightly- 
plumaged bird visits 
Europe in summer 
and extends through 
the Mediterranean countries, eastwards to Central Asia and to Cashmere. In 
winter it betakes itself by the east coast of Africa down to the Cape Colony, and 
is said to breed a second time in its winter quarters. The food of the Bee-eater 
consists entirely of insects, and in Southern Spain the bird is said to earn the hatred 
of the peasantry from the slaughter it creates among the bees. There is no nest, 
but the birds tunnel for a long way into sandy banks, and deposit their five or six 
white eggs in a chamber at the end of this tunnel. 
This Indian species is said by the late John Hancock to 
have been shot at Seaton Carew, in Northumberland, in 
August, 1862. Its home is in 
India and Southern China, 
whence it extends through the Burmese countries 
and the Malayan Peninsula to the Philippines, Java, 
Borneo, and Celebes. In habits it resembles the 
Common Bee-eater, and lays four or five glossy 
pure white eggs at the end of a hole without any 
nest. The species may be distinguished from M. 
apiaster by its green upper surface and blue tail. 
These are most ummistak- 
able birds, remarkable for their 
enormously developed crests, 
variegated wings, and desert-coloured sandy 
plumage; they have also a peculiarly long and curved 
slender bill. They have the same perforation of the 
fore part of the breast-bone as the Bee-eaters, but The Blue-Tailed Bee-Eater. 
THE BLUE-TAILED 
BEE-EATER. 
( Merops philippinus). 
THE HOOPOES. 
Sub-order UPUPJE. 
