COMMON BEE-EATER. 
385 
sometimes being an attendant on the vicinity ot 
the apiary, has received the name it bears, with 
the blame of being destructive to Bees. Except 
in the breeding season, it is said to assemble in 
troops, but this may perhaps be only at times 
preparatory to migration. Those killed in this 
country have been mostly single, except in the 
instance of a flight of twenty occurring in Norfolk 
in 1794. Mr Swainson remarks, they annually 
visit Italy in flocks of twenty or thirty, and may 
be seen skimming over the vineyards and olive 
plantations, with a flight much resembling the 
Swallow, though more direct and less rapid.* 
They breed in deep holes, excavated in the banks 
of rivers, the nest being said to be composed of 
moss and soft materials at the end. The eggs 
are pure white. 
A specimen from Southern Africa now before 
us, has the head and back of a deep orange 
coloured brown, passing into safron yellow on 
the lower part of the back and rump. The fore- 
head is white, changing to verdegris green, which 
again runs in a line over each eye, and shades 
into the chestnut of the crown ; quills and secon- 
daries blackish gray on the insides, the tips and 
shafts appearing black on the outsides: The 
outer webs bluish green, shading on the inner 
webs to black. Tail greenish blue, the two centre 
feathers elongated and narrowed to a point at the 
ends, which are blackish green. The chin and 
throat are yellow, surrounded below by a gorget 
* Lardner, vol. ii. p. 152. 
2 B 
