niE ROLLERS. 75 



where the male had been shot. Like Mr. Howard Saunders 

 (/.r.), I give the story "for what it is worth." 



Range outside the British Islands. — This Roller is an inhabitant 

 of the Soudanese Sub-region of Africa, and is found in Sene- 

 gambia, on the Niger, and extends to North-east Africa. It 

 has never been found in any other part of the African con- 

 tinent, and no more improbable visitor to the north of Europe 

 could well be imaiiined. 



in. THE INDIAN ROLLER. CORACIAS INDICUS. 



Coracias indicus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 159 (1766); Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 10 (1892). 



Adult Male. — General colour drab-brown, slightly glossed 

 with oily-green; rump greenish-blue, washed with purple; 

 wing-coverts greenish-blue, the lesser coverts bright purplish- 

 blue; quills also purplish-blue, the inner secondaries like the 

 back, the primaries zvith a broad siib-termiiial hand of silvery- 

 bhce, decreasing in size towards the centre of the wing ; centre 

 tail-feathers green, the remainder purplish-blue at the base, 

 succeeded by a broad band of silvery-cobalt, and ending in 

 a band of purplish-blue ; crown and nape green, with a 

 greenish-blue eyebrow ; base of forehead sandy-buff, succeeded 

 by a shade of purplish-lilac ; sides of face, throat, and chest 

 purplish-lilac, the feathers streaked with greeni.-,h-white shafts ; 

 breast lilac-brown; abdomen, thighs, and under wing- and 

 tail-coverts silvery-cobalt ; bill blackish-brown ; feet brownish- 

 yellow ; eyelid and naked skin round the eye pale gamboo-e • 

 iiis greyish-brown. Total length, 12 inches; culmen, 1-5; 

 wing, 7-3; tail, 5-0; tarsus, 0-95. 



Adult Female. — Similar to the male in colour. Total len^^th 

 12 inches; wing, 7" 15. 



Eange in Great Britain. — A Roller was shot at Muckton, near 

 Louth, in Lincolnshire, on the 27th of October, 1883, by a 

 cottager, and was entered in the Migration Report for 1883 

 (p. 47) as Coracias garriilus. The specimen in question has 

 now become the property of Mr. John Cordeaiix, and turns 

 out to be the Indian Roller, 



