CORACIAS. 109 



LevgtJt. — 10 to 11 inches, wing 5'75, tail 3-75. 



Hub. — Europe, N. and W. Africa, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, Cashmere, 

 Persia, Beloochistan, Afghanistan, and Asia Minor. In India it occurs 

 as a bird of passage in the Punjab, N. W. Provinces, Sind, Kutch, 

 Kattiawar, Rajputana, and the Deccan. Colonel St. John {Zoology 

 of Eastern Persia) remarks, that it is common throughout tLe summer 

 in Persia at 2,500 to 6,000 feet elevation, breeding in company with 

 sparrows, pigeons and rollers. 



Family, CORACIADyE,— Pvollers. 



Bill long and broad at the base, tip hooked ; nostrils at the base, 

 oblique, linear, apert ; gape with strong rictal bristles; wings and 

 tail moderately long; 2nd qLiill longest; tarsi short. 



Gen. Coracias. — Lin. 

 Characters same as those of the Family. 



Coracias indica, Lin. ; Edw. B. pi. 326; P. E. 285; Jerd. B. Ind. 

 p. 214, No. 123; 1-Inwe, Sir. F. vii. 259; Murray, Hdbk., Zool., 8fc., 

 Sind, p. 128. — The Inoian Roller. 



Forehead rufescent brown ; head and nape greenish blue ; super- 

 cilium light blue ; hind neck^ scapulars, upper back and tertiaries 

 ashy or earthy brown, tinged on the hind neck with vinous ; lower back 

 greenish blue; rump, upper tail-coverts, lesser coverts^ and shoulders 

 cobalt blue, some of the feathers of the upper tail-coverts tipped green- 

 ish. Winglet and primaries pale blue, the latter with a broad baud of 

 violet blue in the middle and tipped dark blue ; secondaries violet blue, 

 the margins of their inner webs dusky, and the basal half of their outer 

 ones dark g-reen, shadingf into lio:ht blue on their outer margins. Tail 

 with the middle feathers dull green, the rest violet blue with a pale sky 

 blue band. Chin light fulvous; throat and breast of a vinous colour, 

 with light fulvous shaft-stripes, passing into isabelline on the upper 

 abdomen, where t-he fulvous streaks are indistinct. Lower abdomen, 

 vent, under tail-coverts, and under wing-coverts pale blue. Bill dusky 

 brown; legs orange; irides red brown; eyelids yellow. 



Length. — 13*5 inches, wing 7'25, tail 5, bill at front 1*12, tarsus 1. 



Hah. — The whole of India and Ceylon; the Himalayas, Nepaul, 

 N. W. Provinces, the Punjab, Sind, S. Persia (Bushire), Beloochistan, 

 Kutch, Kattiawar, Jodhpore, Jeypore, North Guzerat, the Concans and 

 the Deccan. 



In Sind it is a resident and breeds in holes of decayed trees, and 

 sometimes in the deep forks of acacia trees in April and May. Eggs 

 two in number, round, pure white. 



Coracias garrula, Lin.; P. E. 486; Naum. vogt. t. 60 ; Gould. 

 B. Eur. pi. 60; Jerd. B. Ind. p. 218, No. 125; Str. F. vol. i. 168; iv. 

 133 ; V. 502 ; Murray, TLM:, Zool., .fc, Sind, p. 128.— The Eueopean 

 Roller. 



