ROLLER 



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tail, the roller cannot be mistaken for any other bird to be met with 

 in the British Isles, unless it be its Indian relative, of which one English 

 example is recorded. In length the roller measures about i 2 inches : 

 and it is further characterised by its somewhat heavy and slightly 

 arched beak, furnished with large bristles at the gape, which is relatively 

 wide. In both sexes the head and neck are bright greenish blue, the 

 back is chestnut, the upper wing-coverts and the greater part of the 

 tan are dark blue, but the tip of the latter, the greater wing-coverts, 

 the bases of the primary quills, and the whole of the under-parts are 

 pale blue. Young birds may be distinguished from adults by their 

 generally duller tone of colouring. 



The roller is a migratory bird, which spends the winter in Africa 

 and breeds in central 

 and southern Europe, 

 Persia, Turkestan, 

 Kashmir and the ad- 

 jacent parts of Asia, 

 passing through some 

 of the north-western 

 districts of India on its 

 journeys. Although it 

 is probable that few 



persons have seen this ■■"■X 



brilliantly coloured bird 

 in the wild state in 

 England, it is far from 

 an uncommon summer 



or autumn visitor to the British Isles, where it has probably occurred 

 on something like a hundred different occasions during the time that 

 accurate observations on our bird-fauna have been recorded. As might 

 be expected, most of these occurrences have taken place in the southern 

 counties of England, but several specimens have been taken in the 

 Orkneys and Shetlands, while Ireland claimed ten examples up to 1900, 

 of which two were taken in September and four in October. The late- 

 ness of these latter occurrences is somewhat remarkable, seeing that 

 the bird is stated to make its appearance in the south of Europe in 

 April and to depart in August. Despite the brilliance of its plumage, 

 the roller is, however, by no means an exclusively southern species, 

 having bred as far north as St. Petersburg and up to about latitude 

 60° in Scandinavia ; and there is accordingly no reason, so far as 

 climatic conditions are concerned, why it should not nest in England. 



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