434 



COKACIID.E. 



the tip and yellow at the base : the irides brownish-grey : 

 the head, neck, breast and belly are dull greyish-brown, with 

 the tips of the feathers lighter, and a slight gloss of bluish- 

 green; the cinnamon on the back and scapulars of the adults 

 is replaced by dull orange, slightly tinged with green; the 

 rerniges shew but a small portion of the deep blue, and this 

 is of a dusky shade; while the tail is dull greenish-grey, 

 slightly glossed above with blue ; but obscured as is the 

 plumage, it is impossible to be mistaken. The time that 

 elapses before the full colours are assumed is unknown. 



The nestling has a still more dingy appearance ; the head, 

 neck, lower parts of the back, and the whole body beneath, 

 are streaked with light greenish-grey; upper part of the 

 back and scapulars greyish-brown, tinged with dull green ; 

 wings and tail as before described : the irides are grey, and 

 the feet pale brownish-yellow. 



The vignette represents the sternum of this species.* 



* Dr. Bree in 1859 (B. Europe, i. p. 157) mentioned a male of the Abyssinian 

 Roller, then in the possession of Mr. Small of Edinburgh, " killed near Glasgow 

 a year or two ago," adding that a "female was also obtained a short time after, 

 but forty miles distant." The normal range of this species — Coracias leuco- 

 ccphalus, P. L. S. Miiller; C. abessinus, Bodd. and C. scnegalcmis, Gmel. — has 

 been traced by Mr. Sharpe (Ibis, 1871, p. 199), and it is a very unlikely bird to 

 have escaped from confinement, since Rollers are not often imported alive to this 

 country. There is no other record of the appearance of the species in Europe. 



