The BEE-EATERS (Meropes) comprise some of the most beautiful birds inhabiting the Eastern Hemisphere, and present so many peculiarities as to render their identification easy. Their body is very slender; the beak longer than the head, with both mandibles slightly curved, the upper one a trifle longer than the lower; the culmen, margins, and tip are sharp; the short, small foot has three toes, the exterior of which is connected with that in the centre as far as the second joint, whilst the inner toe is not joined to the latter beyond the first joint; the claws are long, hooked, sharp, and furnished with a prominent ridge on the inner side; the wing, in which the second quill exceeds the rest in length, is long and pointed; the tail is long, either straight, forked, or slightly rounded at its extremity; in some species the centre tail-feathers are twice as long as those at the exterior. The brilliantly variegated plumage is short and thick; the sexes are almost alike in colour, and the young acquire the same hues as their parents within the second year.
One species of Bee-eater is found in Australia; but with this exception all the members of this group inhabit the Eastern Hemisphere. As regards their general habits, the Bee-eaters nearly resemble the Swallows, and, like them, are to be seen darting through the air when the sun is shining, in active pursuit of the insect hosts. Insects afford these pretty birds their principal means of subsistence, and, as their name implies, they eagerly devour large quantities of bees and wasps. The nests of the Bee-eaters are usually placed near together in holes in the ground or sand, and contain from four to seven pure white eggs.
THE COMMON BEE-EATER.
The COMMON BEE-EATER (Merops apiaster) (Coloured Plate [XXIV].), one of the largest members of this family, is ten inches long and seventeen broad; the wing measures five inches and one-third, and the tail from four inches to four and a quarter. In this species the brow is white, and top of the head green; the nape, sides of the neck, and centre of the wings are chestnut-brown; the back is yellow, with a greenish gloss; the cheek-stripes, which terminate at the back of the neck, and a line around the pale yellow throat are black; the under side and rump are blue or blueish green; the quills grass-green, blue on their outer web, and tipped with black; the tail-feathers are blueish green, shaded with yellow, the long centre pair are also tipped with black; the eye is bright red, the beak black, and the foot of a reddish hue.
The Merops apiaster is an occasional visitor to this country, and somewhat resembles the Swallows in its habits. Like them, it captures prey on the wing. It devours bees and wasps in large quantities, and that without experiencing the least inconvenience from their sting, which it probably gets rid of by frequently pressing the body between its mandibles, until the sting is either extracted or rendered harmless. In the island of Crete these birds are caught by boys, by means of a cicada attached to a pin or fish-hook fastened to a long thread. In many parts of Europe the flesh is esteemed as an article of food. The voice of this species is rich and pleasing.
"I have had the gratification," says Mr. Thompson, "of seeing the Bee-eater in scenes with which its brilliant plumage was more in harmony than with any in the British Isles. It first excited my admiration when visiting the celebrated grotto of Egeria, near Rome. On approaching the classic spot, several of these birds, in rapid Swift-like flight, swept closely past, uttering their peculiar call, and, with their brilliant colours and graceful form, proved irresistibly attractive. My companions, who, as well as myself, beheld them for the first time, were so greatly struck with the beauty of their plumage, and their bold, sweeping flight, as to term them the presiding deities of the Egerian grotto. Rich as was the spot in historical and poetical associations, it was not less so in pictorial charms. All was in admirable keeping; the picturesque grotto, with its ivy-mantled entrance and gushing spring; the gracefully-reclining, though headless, white marble statue of the nymph; the sides of the grotto covered with the exquisitely-beautiful maiden-hair fern in the richest luxuriance; the wilderness of wild flowers around the exterior attracting the bees on which the Meropses were feeding; and over all the deep blue sky of Rome completing the picture."
The sting-bearing hymenoptera undoubtedly constitute the favourite food of these resplendent birds, and to obtain them, not only are the hives of the honey-bee put under requisition, but the nests of wasps, hornets, and humble-bees are ruthlessly robbed of their inhabitants; indeed, it has been frequently observed that when the Bee-eaters have been fortunate enough to find a wasp's nest, they establish their head-quarters in its immediate neighbourhood, and, during a few hours' sojourn, generally contrive to snap up its numerous occupants one after another until none are left. Nor do these insects alone suffer from their voracity; grasshoppers, crickets, dragon-flies, gadflies, beetles, flies, and even gnats are by no means unacceptable prey, in spite of the dense, indigestible armour in which some of them are encased.
The nest of the Bee-eater is constructed towards the end of May, the locality selected being generally the sandy or clayey bank of some river, in which it excavates a round hole, from two inches to two inches and a half in diameter, apparently by means of its beak and claws, or perhaps with its claws only; from this external opening the hole extends into the bank in a slightly-inclined direction to a distance of from four to six feet, and terminates in a capacious chamber eight or ten inches long, by four to six inches broad, and three or four inches in height. It is upon the floor of this chamber that about the month of June the female lays her eggs, which are four or six in number. It is asserted by some writers that in this chamber a nest is constructed with stems of heather and lined with moss; upon this subject we can only say that in none of the holes examined by us was there the slightest trace of any nest-building materials, but in lieu thereof we always found large quantities of the elytra of beetles and of the wings of bees and other insects heaped together as if to form a kind of cushion, so that the young were not quite upon the bare ground. Whether the male assists the female in the process of incubation is as yet undetermined; but we can vouch for it that both parents most assiduously wait upon and provide food for their callow progeny.