Chambers's encyclopaedia; a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people . a jjlace of grandeur and importance, yet it is at presentremarkable chiefly for its manufactures in a compound metal madeup of twenty-four parts of tin to one of copper. BEE-EATER (Merojjs), a genus of birds of the order Insessoresand tribe Fisnirostres; the tjpe of a family, Meropidm, nearlj alliedto that of the Kingfishers. The birds of the B. family have ratherlong slightly arched beaks, and long pointed wings : they are mostlyof a green color; resemble swallows in flight; and, like them, jjreyon insects, but chi
Chambers's encyclopaedia; a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people . a jjlace of grandeur and importance, yet it is at presentremarkable chiefly for its manufactures in a compound metal madeup of twenty-four parts of tin to one of copper. BEE-EATER (Merojjs), a genus of birds of the order Insessoresand tribe Fisnirostres; the tjpe of a family, Meropidm, nearlj alliedto that of the Kingfishers. The birds of the B. family have ratherlong slightly arched beaks, and long pointed wings : they are mostlyof a green color; resemble swallows in flight; and, like them, jjreyon insects, but chiefly on bees, wasps, and other hymenopterousInsects. Their skin is very thick. The species of the genus Me-. Common Bee-eatiT (Meiopx apiaster). rops are numerous in Africa and Asia; none are known in America;two are European, one of which, the Common B. {M. apiaster), iscommon in the south of Europe as a summer bird of passage. Itis a very rare bird in Britain. It is mentioned by Aristotle, underthe name Merops, as very destructive to bees. It seizes them onthe wing, and also often watches near their hives, and at themouths of wasps nests. It breeds in holes, which it excavates inthe banks of rivers. When the young are partly fledged, but notyet fit to fly, they creep to the mouth of their holes, where to enjoy the happy summer light and genial sunshine; buton the least alarm, they trundle st!ern foremost into their innerchambers, where they lie concealed until tianquillity again pre-vails. In the banks of the Don and Volga, the excavations madeby the flocks of bee-eaters are so numerous, that the bank in manyplaces resembles a honey-comb. Livingstone describes the banksof the Lee
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