This bird called meropes in manuscripts has been tentatively identified as the bee-eater. The texts say it is affectionate to its parents, and helps rejuvenate them by licking the mist from their eyes and pulling out old feathers. This is also said of the hoopoe. This bird appears in the Liber Floridus, an encyclopedia by Lambert of Saint-Omer and in other encyclopedias, and in at least one bestiary (Cambridge University Library, Kk. 4. 25, folio 84v).

The modern genus name for the European Bee-eater is merops.