Blue-tailed Bee-eater
Merops philippinus Linnaeus, 1767
Photo © By Afsarnayakkan - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69704698
STATUS
Oriental region. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1862 Cleveland/Co. Durham/Yorkshire Branch End, near Seaton Snook, Yorkshire, shot, August, now at Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
(Hancock, 1874; Gurney, 1876; Yarrell, 1871-85; H. T. Wharton, Zoologist 1883: 33-34, 80; Anon., Proceedings of the Zoological Society 1883: 1; R. Lofthouse, Naturalist 1887 (12): 16; Nelson, 1907; Bolam, 1912; Temperley, 1951; Mather, 1986).
[Yarrell, 1876-82; BOU, 1883; Saunders, 1899; not in BOU, 1971].
History Hancock (1874: 28) under 'Blue-tailed Bee-eater', says: 'A fine specimen of this species was kindly submitted to me by the Rev. T. M. Hicks, of Newburn, in whose possession it now is. It was shot near the Snook, Seaton Carew, in August, 1862, by Mr. Thomas Hann, of Byers' Green.'
Gurney (1876: 275-276) says: 'I should like this specimen to be compared again, as I think it may turn out to be Merops aegyptius, Forsk., the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, which is more likely to occur, because it is a much more western species. Seaton Snook is not the place where I should have expected to meet with a Bee-eater, though I remember being shown a bird of equal brilliancy which was found there, a Jacamar, already skinned too. The skin of a Patagonian Penguin was picked up on the "slake" at Jarrow (Fox's Newc. Mus., p. 233).'
Alfred Newton (1876-82 (2): 442, 4th ed.) in Yarrell's British Birds, in a footnote, adds: 'No other instance of the appearance in Europe of this eastern species is known.'
Anon. (1883) in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, p. 1, at a meeting held on 16th January 1883, says: 'Mr. Dresser exhibited the specimen of a Bee-eater (Merops philippinus) stated to have been obtained near the Snook, Seaton Carew, in August 1862 (cf. Hancock, B. Northumb. &c., p. 28), and stated that it was an old example, probably a male, in full plumage. Mr. Dresser observed that it was rather singular that this remote southern and eastern species, which had never previously been recorded from any part of Europe, should have been shot in Great Britain.'
H. T. Wharton of Kilburn (1883) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. VII. pp. 33-34, says: 'Mr. Hancock, in his Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham, p. 28 (Newcastle, 1874), says "a specimen of the Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus, Linn.) was shot near the Snook, Seaton Carew in August, 1862". Endeavours have been recently made to obtain this example for identification, but without success; when its whereabouts are known it will probably prove to be a specimen of the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (Merops persicus, Pallas), as Mr. Dresser remarked in his article in the Birds of Europe, V. p. 168 (1877). It is much more probable for the ordinary African species to occur in Great Britain than for an inhabitant of the Philippines to wander so far west. The young of the two species bear a close resemblance to one another.'
Further, p. 80, he adds: 'The example of this bird mentioned on p. 33 has at length been traced, and it was exhibited at the scientific meeting of the Zoological Society on January 16th by Mr. H. E. Dresser. Since it proves to be an adult specimen, the mystery of the appearance of this Asiatic species so far west remains as great as ever. Is it possible it was "changed at nurse?'
Not admitted nationally in their first List of British Birds of which the occurrence of such a far eastern species in Europe is unprecedented, and there has probably been some error (BOU 1883: 82-83).
R. Lofthouse (1887) in the new series of The Naturalist, Vol. XII, p. 16, says: 'A Bee-eater was shot some years ago under peculiar circumstances. A wild-fowler had seated himself in a slag-bank to wait for birds, when suddenly a bird alighted on the barrel of his gun. He shot it, and it turned out to be a specimen of this rare bird*.' Further, in a footnote*, he adds: 'Mr. Hancock (Birds of Northumberland, &c., p. 28) says an example of the Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops phillipinus) "was shot near the Snook, Seaton Carew, in August, 1862". I have not been able to ascertain whether the above refers to the same bird as my note, made several years ago from information communicated by a friend, who saw the bird.
Nelson (1907 (1): 284-285) placing the record in square brackets, says: '...The locality where the bird was obtained is, however, actually on the Yorkshire side of the river, and therefore within the scope of the present work. Thomas Hann was well known to me, and to George Mussell, the Middlesbrough taxidermist. He called at Mussell's house in Middlesbrough on the day on which the bird was killed and detailed to him how he been to the "Branch End", where he was sitting on a slag ball when the bird alighted near him and was shot. He subsequently told Mussell that he came by train from Eston, and that he was offered twelve shillings and sixpence for the specimen when he arrived at Middlesbrough station. The mention of the slag proves the shooting to have been on the Yorkshire side, as that on the north side of the river is tipped from Messrs. Bell Bros. Clarence Works, and I learn from Sir Hugh Bell that the tipping did not commence (except in the immediate vicinity of the works) until 1872 or 1873, and there was no slag at all at Seaton Snook until well on into the "seventies". The "Branch End" is on the Yorkshire side, near Bolckow, Vaughan & Co.'s works, where tipping was in progress before 1862.'
Bolam (1912) says: 'A passing reference to Hancock's specimen of the Blue-tailed Bee-eater (M. philippinus), shot at Seaton Carew, County Durham, in August, 1862, may be of interest to some who have not access to his book; and gives, besides, an opportunity to express a hope that the meaningless note in Saunders' Manual (2nd Ed., p. 284) may be expunged from any future edition of that most useful work. To attach to so authentic a record the utterly unjustifiable "said to have been shot" is as pointless as the insinuation that the identification of the specimen required further confirmation, and is surely no help to accuracy. The specimen is in the Museum at Newcastle, so that anyone who doubts Hancock's ability to correctly identify it may confirm it if he chooses.'
0). 1902 Dorset Parkstone, caught, September.
(N. M. Richardson, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History Society and Antiquarian Field Club 24: 181).
[F. L. Blathwayt, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History Society and Antiquarian Field Club 39: 50].
History Nelson M. Richardson, Editor (1903) in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History Society and Antiquarian Field Club, Vol. XXIV. p. 181, says: 'Rare birds in 1902. Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops phillipinus. - Mrs. Butts, of The Salterns, Parkstone, caught a specimen of this bird in September of this year. From the fact of its being an extra-European species, the chances would seem to be in favour its having escaped from a cage, though Mrs. Butts says that it had no signs of having ever been in captivity about it. I am not aware of any other British record.'
F. L. Blathwayt (1918) in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History Society and Antiquarian Field Club, Vol. XXXIX. p. 49, under 'New Species of Birds observed in Dorset,' says: 'The example of this species reported as caught at Parkstone, September, 1902 (D.F.C. Vol. XXIV. p. 181), was subsequently identified as a Black-headed Sibia (Lioptila capistrata), an Indian species, examples of which were released in Dorset in the summer of 1902. Attention is here drawn to the record in order that the error may not be perpetuated.'
Comment Misidentified. Not acceptable.
