. An illustrated manual of British birds . the Bee-eater, it mayfrequently be seen sitting on telegraph-wires. The food consists ofbeetles and other insects captured on the ground. On migrationthe Roller is observed in large flocks. The adult has the head and nape greenish-blue ; mantle chestnut-brown ; upper wing-coverts dark blue; greater wing-coverts andbases of primaries light blue, quills black ; tail-feathers dark blueat the bases and in the middle, and pale blue on the lower portions ;chin white ; under parts light blue ; bill dark horn-colour ; legs andfeet yellowish-brown. Length 12 i
. An illustrated manual of British birds . the Bee-eater, it mayfrequently be seen sitting on telegraph-wires. The food consists ofbeetles and other insects captured on the ground. On migrationthe Roller is observed in large flocks. The adult has the head and nape greenish-blue ; mantle chestnut-brown ; upper wing-coverts dark blue; greater wing-coverts andbases of primaries light blue, quills black ; tail-feathers dark blueat the bases and in the middle, and pale blue on the lower portions ;chin white ; under parts light blue ; bill dark horn-colour ; legs andfeet yellowish-brown. Length 12 in. ; wing 78 in. The sexes arealike in plumage ; the young bird is much more dingy and less pro-nounced in colour. The late Dr. Bree has stated that a male of the Abyssinian Roller,C. leiicocephahis, was killed near Glasgow about 1857, and a femalelater, some forty miles off; the former was preserved by Mr. Smallof Edinburgh, and is said to be in the Paisley Museum. The story isgiven, like many others, for what it is worth. 73. ?^is A^ ^^^ THE BEE-EATER. Merops apiaster, Linnaeus. The first British-killed Bee-eater on record was obtained in Nor-folk in June 1793, and since that time over thirty examples havebeen noticed south of Derbyshire in England, and Pembrokeshirein Wales—chiefly on the spring migration. Further north its visitshave been very rare; Mr. W. E. Clarke mentions a bird picked upexhausted near Filey in Yorkshire on June 9th i88c ; and inScotland one was captured in October 1832 near the Mull ofGalloway, while two or three are said to have been taken in thenorth-east of the country. In Ireland it has occurred five or sixtimes, chiefly in the south. On the Continent its northerly range is not, as a rule, so extensiveas that of the Roller; and although it has been known to pushits excursions to Muonioniska, within the Arctic circle, yet its visitsto Sweden, Denmark, and Northern Germany, are few and irregular,and on Heligoland it has only once been ob
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidillustra, booksubjectbirds
