CORACIANIN AE. 97 
wings moderate or long, broad; tail variable, sometimes short 
and even, at other times with very elongated outer tail-feathers. 
Genus, Coracias, Lin. 
Bill large, moderately thick, lengthened, straight, strong, some- 
what broad at the base, compressed towards the tip ; culmen sloping, 
hooked abruptly ; the nostrils basal, oblique, linear, apert ; gape very 
wide, with strong rictal bristles; wings tolerably lengthened, the 
second quill longest, or the second and third sub-equal ; tail even 
or slightly rounded, short ; tarsus stout, shorfer than the middle- 
toe; outer-toe nearly free to the base, much longer than the 
inner-toe; hind-toe shorter than the inner-toe; tarsus and toes 
strongly scutate. 
Coracias indica, Zin. 
123.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 214; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 456; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 
- IX, p. 382; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 109; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 61. 
THe InpIAN ROLLER. 
Nilkant, Hin. 
Length, 12 to 13°5; expanse, 233 to 25; wing, 7:25; tail, 51; 
tarsus, 0°98; bill at gape, 1°7; bill at front, 1-1. 
Bill dusky-brown ; irides dark red-brown; eyelids yellow; legs 
dusky orange-yellow. 
Head above and nape dingy greenish-blue, the forehead 
tinged with rufous; hind-neck, scapulars, inter-scapulars and 
tertiaries dull ashy-brown with a green gloss, and tinged with 
vinous on the hind-neck; back blue; rump and upper tail- 
coverts deep violet-blue ; lesser-coverts and shoulders deep co- 
balt-blue; the other coverts dingy greenish-blue; the winglet, 
greater coverts and quills pale sky-blue, with a broad band of 
violet-blue on the middle of the wings, occupying the terminal 
half of the secondaries and last two or three primaries ; the first 
seven primaries tipped dark blue; tail, with the two centre 
feathers, dull green, the others dark violet-blue, with a broad 
pale-blue band, occupying the greater part of the terminal half 
of the tail, and widening exteriorly ; beneath, chin, throat, and 
breast, light vinous-purple ; the feathers with pale fulvous shafts 
passing into tawny-isabella, with light streaks on the abdomen; 
lower abdomen, flanks, vent, and under tail-coverts pale blue ; 
wings beneath entirely pale blue, with a broad violet band. 
The Roller, or as Europeans prefer to call it, the Blue Jay, 
is generally distributed throughout the district; it is a perma- 
nent resident, but retires to the’ better-wooded portions of the 
country to breed. At and near Hyderabad, Sind, I found many 
nests and have several times taken them in Central India. ; 
They breed during April, May and June, in holes in trees, old 
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