MEROPS APIASTER, hinn 
Bee-eater. 
Merops apiaster, Linn. Mus. Acl. Fr., tom. ii. p. 21. 
chrysocephalus, Gmel. edit. Linn Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 463. 
schceghagha, Forsk. Faun. Arab , 1. 
Jmmgarice, Brehm, Vbg. Deutschl., tom. i. p. 14 6, tab. xi. fig. i. 
The members of tbe family Meropida or Bee-eaters, so widely distributed over tbe Old World, are 
remarkable for tbe elegance of their forms and tbe gaiety of their colouring. Those constituting tbe 
restricted genus Merops are seven in number; of these, two, M. apiaster and M. /Egypthis, 
inhabit Europe and Egypt, and extend their range westward to Affgbanistan ; M. philippensis frequents 
the whole of India, Southern China, Formosa, Flores, and Timor ; and M. inridts is common in Burmah 
and Siam ; M. bicolor is peculiar to the Malayan provinces ; M. quinticolor is a native of the Indo-Chinese 
countries. Southern India, and Ceylon, and M. ornatus of Australia and the Papuan Islands. 
Many of these beautiful birds are migratory, or at least change their locale according to the 
seasons; the species here represented passes the greater portion of its life in the light ethereal air 
of subtropical regions, and the azure-blue skies of Greece, Italy, and Spain are far more coii- 
cenial to its habits and economy than the cold blasts of more northern countries ; its occurrence 
in the British Islands, however, has been sufficiently frequent to entitle it to a place in our avi- 
fauna. During the last century nearly fifty have been recorded as having been shot in England, 
and one or two in Ireland. The following are the instances enumerated by the late Mr. Yarrell ; — One 
at Kingsgate, in the Isle of Thanet ; another at Godaiming, in Surrey ; a third at Christchurch, in Flamp- 
shire ; a fourth at Chidcock, in Dorsetshire ; three in Devonshire ; four in the parish of Madern, in Corn- 
wall ; a flock of twelve near Helston, in the same county, of which eleven were killed ; four or five in 
Suffolk and Norfolk ; and a few others, the localities of which are not mentioned. Since the completion of Mr. 
Yarrell’s work, others have from time to time made their appearance ; these, like their predecessors, must have 
been driven out of their regular route of migration, and alighted in England, the first land they came to. One 
of its most recent occurrences is recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ for J une 1866. Mr. George Harding, junior, there 
states that four specimens were shot near Bristol during the first week of the preceding month, and remarks 
that when first observed “ thev were hawking for bees round a number of fruit-trees in blossom, and in 
the neighbourhood of a number of beehives ; at one moment soaring in circles at a great height, and at the 
next darting Avith velocity after their prey, which was often apparently some of the largest species of 
Bombus ; when one of these was caught, it was carried for half a minute or more at the point of the hill, 
and then, Avith a sudden and peculiar turn of the head and neck, swallowed entire. At other times the 
birds sat upon the dead branches of a large elm and of a cherry-tree, Avhence they made short excursions 
after bees flying past or gathering round the fruit-flowers, sometimes returning to the same perch, like the 
flycatcher, hut more often circling round for a short time before settling. The bees appeared to he always 
swalloAved while the birds AA^ere on the wing.” 
So much information respecting the habits and economy of this bird has been recorded by the Rev. 
Mr. Tristram, Mr. Stafford S, Allen, and others, in ‘ The Ibis,’ that it is hut fair to those accurate 
observers to give a transcript of it in their OAvn Avords. 
“ The Bee-eater,” says Mr. Tristram, in his account of the Ornithology of Palestine, “ appeared simul- 
taneously in large flocks, and remained more or less gregarious throughout the summer in every part of 
the country. It does not frequently perch, hut remains for hours on the Aving, skimming, svvalloAV-like, up 
and down a nullah or wady, or systematically ranging and quartering a barley-plain in pursuit of insects 
on the Aving. Seen atliAA^art the sunbeams as they passed overhead, their colour has the appearance of 
burnished copper. They feed as Avell as breed in colonies, ))referring Ioav banks to the steeper declivities, 
and seeming to rely for protection against lizards and other enemies on the structure and turnings of their 
dAA^ellings rather than on their position. I have taken the eggs from a nest in the side of a low sand mound 
on the plain, out of which I startled the bird by riding over its hole. 
“It does not, so far as I can ascertain, utilize the borings of the previous year; whether from 
the number of parasitic insects it leaves behind, or from the fact that the lizards generally squat in 
the vacant dAvellings, I cannot say. It has been stated that it lines its nest with the elytra and legs of 
beetles. This I conceiv^e to be mistake. When the eggs are first laid, there are no insect-remains 
to be found; but as the female continues to sit, the debris of her meals becomes heaped around her. 
