Volume 26, Plate XXX / Ornithology (Birds)

European Bee-Eater

Merops Apiaster

The European Bee-Eater, Merops Apiaster, is an elegant bird clothed in brilliant colours but with a stridulous and somewhat disagreeable cry. It feeds on insects, especially bees, wasps, and hornets, as well as smaller gnats and flies, inhabiting the warmer parts of Europe and South Africa and seldom met in northern regions, while abounding in Southern Russia, particularly about the rivers Don and Wolga, whose banks it perforates extensively with its excavations.