ROLLER. 287 



at the end of July, and an exceptional case of young in early 

 October is recorded. The young come to the mouth of the 

 hole to be fed when old enough, but Mr. Rowan found the 

 newly hatched young uttering a vibrating purr when expecting 

 food. They are at first without down and clothed with numerous 

 small blue pens ; their bills are then steel-blue, their oversized 

 feet flesh-coloured, their irides very dark blue. When they 

 leave the nest they differ little from their parents, except that 

 the colours are duller, the spot on the neck is buff, and the 

 grey margins to the breast feathers give a mottled appearance ; 

 their call is then an insistent, continuous trill. 



The general colour of the upper parts of the adult bird is 

 bright metallic blue, cobalt on the back, and showing greenish 

 reflections on the head and wings ; the ear-coverts and under 

 parts are warm chestnut, the chin and sides of neck white. 

 The bill is black, reddish orange at the base ; the legs are 

 bright red, the irides brown. In the young the bill is black. 

 Length, 7 "5 ins. Wing, 2"95 ins. Tarsus, '3 in. 



Sub-order CORACI^. 

 Family CORACIID^. Rollers. 



The Rollers are brightly coloured birds, allied to the King- 

 fishers and Bee-eaters, but have superficial similarity to Crows. 



Roller. Coracias gam/his Linn. 



The Roller (Plate 113) occurs in summer throughout most of 

 Europe, western Siberia and north-western Africa, migrating 

 for the winter to southern Africa and Asia. It occasionally 

 wanders to Britain on migration, occurring most frequently on 

 the south and east coasts in autumn, but has been met with in 



