MEROPID.E 55 



Iris hazel ; bill bright yellow ; legs and feet greenish-brown. 



Length 10-25 ; wing 6-8 ; tail 3-48 ; culmen 0-85 ; tarsus 0-75. 



The female resembles the male. There is a good deal of variation 

 in size among specimens of this bird. Birds from East Africa being 

 as a rule larger than those from West Africa. 



Distribution. — The Cinnamon Eoller is widely distributed all 

 over the tropical portions of Africa rom Senegambia, Abyssinia, and 

 the upper Nile valley, southwards to the Zambesi ; south of that 

 river it is found, though rarely, in Mashonaland and Portuguese 

 east Africa and has been once noticed in the Transvaal. The 

 following are South African localities : Transvaal — Potchefstroom 

 in November (Ayres) ; Ehodesia — Umvungu river near Gwelo in 

 November (Gates), Umfuli Eiver in October (Ayres and Marshall), 

 Ft. Chiquaqua (Sowerby) ; Portuguese east Africa — Inhambane 

 in September (Francis), Tete (Kirk). 



Habits. — Little has been noticed regarding the habits of the 

 Cinnamon Roller ; most of the examples procured in South Africa 

 have been shot in the months of September and November, and 

 it is probably a migrant from Central Africa; it is usually found in 

 small parties in which the males predominate. They are noisy 

 creatures with unmelodious voices and often combine to mob hawks 

 and other large birds ; their flight is swift and graceful, uniting 

 the qualities of the hawk and the swallow ; they often continue on 

 the wing till late at night, retiring finally to a large tree where they 

 roost together in companies and continue their noisy chatterings 

 throughout the night. 



The Cinnamon Eoller feeds on insects ; beetles and cicadas have 

 been found in its stomach ; these are usually caught on the wing. 

 Alexander found this bird breeding on the Zambesi in the middle 

 of November in holes in the baobab trees, but does not seem to 

 have taken the eggs ; he observed that the males apparently do not 

 assist in the duties of incubation. 



Family II. MEROPID^. 



Bill long, slender and curved throughout, culmen ridged, both 

 mandibles pointed ; legs and feet feeble and syndactyle, the outer 

 or fourth toe united to the middle or third as far as the last joint, 

 the second and third by the basal joint only ; primaries ten ; tail- 

 feathers twelve ; sexes ahke or nearly so ; dorsal feather-tract well 



