cies have suffered great persecution from those who collect feathers and skins for millinery pur- poses. The common bee-eater is perhaps the most beautiful bird of Europe. The crown and mantle are rich chestnut, passing lower down into primrose, the head white and black and the throat yellow, while the rest of the plumage is mainly vivid greenish-blue. Like several related families, the bee-eaters breed in holes in earthen banks, sometimes 6 to 8 feet long and of their own digging, and often gather in great colonies; the shining white eggs rest upon the earth, but become half buried after a time in the wings and rejected parts of insects. The food of these birds consist almost wholly of bees and wasps. They congregate about beehives, and, swooping close to them, seize and consume honey-bees in great numbers, until the cessation of flowers in August, and consequently of bee-work, compels these birds to migrate southward. In mid-Africa the natives observe their movements as a guide to stores of wild honey. See Plate of Kingfishers, Motmots, etc.
BEEF. See Meat.
BEEF'EAT'ER, or BUF'FALO BIRD. See Oxpecker.
BEEFEATER (beef + eater, menial; cf.
AS. hlafaeta, servant, from hlaf, loaf + etan,
to eat). The popular designation for the British
sovereign's Yeomen of the Guard. Since the
reign of Henry VII., they have formed part of
the monarch's train at royal banquets and other
state occasions. Their costume, maintained with
unimportant alterations for nearly four centuries, has much to do with their attractiveness to sightseers. The appellation is commonly, but erroneously, supposed to be a corruption of the French beaufetier or buffetier — one who attends the buffet, or sideboard. Skeat maintains that it means simply eater of beef, a servant or dependent, and quotes eaters (from Ben Jonson) and powder-beef-lubbers, similarly used. Consult Preston, Yeomen of the Guard (London, 1887). See Yeomen of the Guard.
BEE-FLY. A fly of the family Bombyliidæ, many of which resemble bees in general appearance, their bodies being more or less covered with dense whitish or yellowish hair. Some resemble bumblebees, while others are much more slender. They are flower-flies, living upon the nectar of flowers, and are efficient agents in the cross-fertilization of plants, the pollen adhering readily to their hairs. The larvæ are parasitic in the egg-pods of grasshoppers, and also prey upon such caterpillars as cutworms.
BEEF'STEAK' CLUBS. A number of well-known social clubs, formed for the most part in London in the Eighteenth Century. The earliest of these was founded in 1709, with Richard Estcourt, the actor and friend of Steele, as providore, and having as members many of the wits, authors, and men of affairs of the day. The most famous of the clubs, however, was the "Sublime Society of Steaks," founded in 1735 by John Rich, then manager of Covent Garden Theatre. The story is told of the formation of this club that Lord Peterborough supped accidentally with Rich on steak and beer, and found these so much to his taste that the meetings became regular. They were held in a room in the theatre, and as in all true Beefsteak clubs, the refreshments were limited to steaks with beer or wine. Hogarth, Thornhill, Wilkes, Garrick, Codington, Aaron Hill, Leonidas Glover, Beard, the tenor, and other famous men belonged to this club. In 1785 the Prince of Wales joined the "Steaks," and afterwards the Dukes of Clarence and Sussex and the Duke of Norfolk became members. Other devotees were the poet Morris and John Kemble. After the burning of Covent Garden, the 'Sublime Society,' as it was called, had rooms first in the English Opera House, then in the Bedford Coffee House, and finally in the Lyceum (1838), where it remained until it disbanded in 1867. Sheridan founded a Beefsteak club in 1740, with Peg Woffington as president, and with rooms in the Royal Theatre, Dublin. The present Beefsteak Club of London was established in 1876 with rooms in Toole's Theatre. In the United States the well-known newspaper correspondents' organization of Washington, D. C, the 'Gridiron,' is in a general way similar to the English clubs. Consult Arnold, Life and Death of the Sublime Society of Steaks (1871).
BEEF TEA. A light article of diet for sick persons and convalescents, which should contain some of the proteids — i.e. nitrogenous nutritive material of meat, as well as the extractives — generally prepared by placing scraped or chopped lean beef in a glass jar with cold water. After standing for half an hour or so, the jar, which should be tightly covered, is placed in a sauce-pan of water, and gradually heated. For the first hour, the temperature should be below the coagulating point of meat protein (167° F.). It should then be allowed to boil a short time, to take away the raw taste and coagulate the red coloring matter. A little salt is then added to suit the taste. Beef tea contains very little nutriment, and also has little food value. It is the first food borne by the stomach in some cases, and it is somewhat stimulating to the appetite. It should not be given in heart-disease (where a decreased amount of fluid is desirable), gout, or kidney disease. Mutton, treated in a similar manner, yields a broth or tea which is not so easily digested, and is hurtful if the fat be not skimmed off from the liquid. A knuckle of veal affords a similar broth or tea; but it is not so light as beef tea, and, moreover, gelatinizes on cooling. A broth or tea prepared from a young chicken is, of all decoctions of animal matter, the most readily digested, and is specially suitable for invalids in cases of great irritability of the stomach.
BEEF'WOOD'. See Casuarina.
BEE-KEEPING. The apiary or stock of beehives should, of course, be situated in a neighborhood where flowers sufficiently abound for the supply of honey. It is, however, by no means certain to what distance bees roam. Some authors mention a mile as the probable distance; but the opinion has apparently been hazarded on mere conjecture, and there seem to be good reasons for supposing that a much greater distance might more correctly be named. But whatever distance bees may be capable of traveling in quest of honey, it is undoubtedly of great importance that they should have good feeding-ground in the immediate neighborhood of the apiary; and in many parts of the world the practice prevails of removing them from place to place, according to the season, in order that
