Ornithological dictionary of British birds / By G. Montagu.

  • George Montagu
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ornithological dictionary of British birds / By G. Montagu. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    98/666 page 30
    2. p. 1099.— Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 132.—Id. Vog. Deut. 1. t. Heft. 10. male and female.—F'risch. Vig. t. 221. the female, t. 222. male.—Yellow- throated Bee-eater, Lath, Syn. 2. p. 678.—Common Bee-eater, Will. (Ang.) p- 147.—Albin, 2. t. 44.—Linn. Trans. 3. p. 333.—Lath, Syn. 2. p. 667.— Id. Supp. p. 119.—Gen. Hist. 4. 118.—Mont. Orn. Dict.—Id. Supp.— Shaw’s Zool. 8. p. 152.—Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 90.—Selby, pl. 41. pt. 1. p. 120, 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 but little from the description given by Latham, we shall take the liberty of borrowing it from that author. It measures from bill to tailten 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- ereen 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 Linnzan 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 Linnean 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
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