82 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 



what after the fashion of Tumbler-Pigeons. In a moment or two 

 they would be followed by the whole flock, and these gambols 

 would be repeated for a dozen times or more. In about a week 

 the immigrants dispersed ; but a large number, some twenty or 

 thirty pairs, took up their abode in the mouth of the gorge of 

 theWady Kelt, where they began at once to excavate the bank for 

 their nests. After this dispersal not a Roller ever came back 

 to the dom trees where they had roosted at first, though scarcely 

 more than a mile distant from the new settlement. The Wady 

 Kelt was the only place where I met with what could strictly be 

 termed a colony ; elsewhere the Roller was distributed in pairs, 

 but not restricted to any one character of country, nor to any 

 special breeding-places. The neighbourhood of villages, espe- 

 cially where there were ruined churches and mosques, were sure 

 to be enlivened by its brilliant plumage and sprightly presence. 

 It frequents the whole extent of the Ghor, where the Scara- 

 hcei and other sand-beetles supply it with abundance of food ; 

 it is scattered through the whole of the wooded country and 

 forests of Galilee and Eastern Gilead, and especially abounds in 

 open plains with a few clumps of trees, like that of Gennesaret. 

 Everywhere it takes its perch on some conspicuous outstanding 

 branch, or on the top of a rock where it can see and be seen. 

 The bare tops of the fig-trees, before they put forth their leaves, 

 are, in the cultivated terraces, a particularly favourite resort. 

 In the barren Ghor I have often watched it perched uncon- 

 cernedly on a knob of gravel or marl in the plain, watching 

 apparently for the emergence of beetles from the sand. Else- 

 where I have not seen it settle on the ground. Like Europeans 

 in the East, it can make itself happy without chairs and tables 

 in the Desert, but prefers a comfortable easy chair when it is to 

 be found. Its nest I have seen in ruins, in holes in rocks, in 

 burrows in steep sand cliffs, but far more generally in hollow 

 trees. The colony in the Wady Kelt used burrows excavated by 

 themselves ; and many a hole did they relinquish, owing to the 

 difficulty of working it. But so cunningly were the nests placed 

 under a crumbling treacherous ledge, overhanging a chasm of 

 perhaps one or two hundred feet, that we were completely foiled 

 in our siege. We obtained a nest of six eggs, quite fresh, in a 



