The Great Bird Illustrators and their art 1730 - 1930

Black Bee-eater Merops gularis

John Gerrard Keulemans

The family of bee-eaters,with its bright and distinct colouring,is related to that of the kingfishers.The Black Bee-eater is confirmed to the west coast of Africa,where it is found from Sierra Leone down to Angola and,according to Dresser,used to be especially abundant in the Gold Coast - now Ghana.As the name implies,the Bee-eaters are insectivorous and catch their prey on the wing;the Black Bee-eater depicted here likes to select the highest branches of tres for its vantage point,and from there sallies forth in search of its prey.

mapLike most of the fine and rare bird books,Henry Dresser published this monograph himself and it appeared in parts on subscription.The present plate was published in part four,which appeared in April,1885;the work as a whole was issued in five parts.Prior to the 1880's little had been published concerning the habits of the bee-eaters but,on the authority of Dr Reichenow,Dresser suggested that unlike its congeners this particular species nested in the hollows of tree trunks.However,the specimens depicted by Keulemans,which were in Dresser's own collection,are depicted in very anodyne surroundings devoid of specific references to habitat or peculiarities.

A Monograph of the Meropidae,Henry Dresser (1884-86) plate 28

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