A BLUE-TAILED BEE-EATER IN DORSET.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR...)
SIR,—May I be allowed, with all due deference, to ask your readers to doubt the statement that a blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus) has visited Dorset P This species is a native of India, Southern China, and the East Indian islands. It is, therefore, extremely improbable that a specimen should visit our shores. The only one recorded in this country is a bird said to have been shot in Northumberland in August, 1862; not, as Canon Rawnsley states, a hundred years ago in Dorset. Mr. Howard Saunders records the alleged occurrence without comment. Dr. Bowdler-Sharpe only accepts the statement because it was vouched for by Mr. John Hancock, "one of the most conscientious ornithologists which this country has ever produced." This bird was shot and identified. Is it unreasonable of scientific ornithologists, in a case like this, to ask for better evidence than your correspondent offers P No one is more eager to protest against the miscreants who shoot rare birds than I am. But we must distinguish between residents, which are nearly exterminated, or migrants, which might nest here if they were allowed, and these rare foreign stragglers. If a blue-tailed bee-eater ever reached the British Isles, it would soon miserably perish of cold and hunger. If it is shot and identified, an addition is made to our knowledge of ornithology. In conclusion, may I suggest that perhaps the bird was a common bee-eater (Merops apiaster), which visits us from the Continent fairly often P Whatever the bird was, the story is, with all respect, of no value unless the bird, alive or dead, can be produced.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ORNITHOLOGIST.
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