50 CORACIID^ CORACIAS 



spherical, the third being very pointed at one end, much hke a 

 plover's egg in shape." 



This bird is associated with Moselikatze, the old King of the 

 Matabeles, and father of Lobengula, as he claimed its feathers solely 

 for his own royal use and adornment. Probably his interest in the 

 bird was excited by its pugnacity and liveliness. 



Dr. Holub kept two in captivity for some time ; they became 

 very tame and would eat out of his hand ; he found them, how- 

 ever, no match for a pair of parrots placed with them in the 

 same cage. 



402. Coracias spatulatus. Racquet-tailed Roller. 



Coracias spatulatus, Trimen, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, p. 30 [with wood- 

 cut of tail] ; Shelley, Ibis, 1882, p. 243 [Umfuli Eiver] ; SJiarjje, ed. 

 Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 805 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. xvii, p. 22 (1892) ; 

 Dresser, Monogr. Corac. pp. 13, 17, pis. 4-6 (1893) ; Shelley, B. Afr. 

 i, p. 109 (1896) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 246. 



Description. Male. — Type of the species. Head and neck pale 

 brownish-green, a marked frontal band and eyebrow wbite ; back, 

 secondaries, and some of the inner wing-coverts pale brown, the 

 outer coverts, carpal and ulna edge of the wing ultramarine-blue ; 

 wing-quills like those of G. caudatus, cobalt at the base, ultramarine 

 and black at the tip ; rump and upper tail-coverts ultramarine ; 

 central pair of tail-feathers black, next pair ultramarine, the next 

 pair the same with a cobalt edging, the outer feathers with in- 

 creasing cobalt and diminishing ultramarine portions ; the outer 

 pair narrowed and elongated half as long again as the other feathers 

 and ending in a racket-shaped portion all of which is black ; general 

 colour below, cobalt-blue with a shade of vinous on the cheeks and 

 ear-coverts, and a patch of lilacy-brown on the sides of the breast ; 

 the throat and breast with paler shaft marks. 



Iris yellowish-brown ; bill black ; legs and feet greenish-yellow. 



Length to middle tail-feather 10-5 ; wing 6-5 ; tail 4-90, with 

 racket 8-0 ; culmen 1-15 ; tarsus 0-80. 



The female resembles the male in colour and size. Young birds 

 have a stronger tinge of lilac on the cheeks and sides of the breast. 



Distrihution. — The type of this species was obtained by Dr. 

 Bradshaw in the Lechumo valley a little to the south of the 

 junction of the Chobe and Zambesi rivers ; it has also been procured 

 within our limits in Mashonaland on the Umfuli river by Ayres, 



