CORACIAS GARRULA. 187 



The Garrulous Roller. 



(Coracias Garrula.) Linn. 



" For both of you are birds of self -same feather." — Henry VI. 



The rollers are wild, unsociable birds, and prefer to live in 

 the gloom of dense forests. Like the bee-eater, their brilliancy 

 of plumage denotes them to be strangers to the temperate clime 

 of Britain, but are plentiful in the forests of Germany, and any 

 rare stragglers may come just to have a peep at the great little 

 island whose reigning dynasty claims kindred to the Anglo- 

 Saxon German race. This one (the only species found in 

 Britain) builds in the holes of trees, and lays from four to 

 seven pure bluish white eggs, very like those of the bee-eater 

 and king-fisher in their roundness and glossy appearance. If 

 holes in trees be scarce, it also makes its nest by digging into a 

 bank, and feeds on insects, snails, millepedes, and fruit. It is 

 larger than the last, being 13 inches to end of tail. Its eggs 

 are very round — 1J by about 1J. I only wish I had seen 

 our gaudy German friend on the Links of St Andrews, to have 

 given me a bona-fide excuse for placing it here. Next in this 

 arrangement come the swallows, as 



Family II. 



Hirundinidce. 



The wings of this group being long, narrow, and acuminate, 

 and the tail generally forked, indicate swift and prolonged 

 flight. The legs and feet — quite in accordance with their little 

 use in walking, are always short and weak, but the toes have 

 sharp, hooked claws, which in some genera are very strong, 

 enabling them to adhere to perpendicular rocks, buildings, and 

 trees, where they roost and breed. They are spread over the 

 globe, and are met with in almost all climates at certain times 

 of the year. To enable them to catch their insect food, 

 although their bill is short, their gape is wide, extending as far 

 back as the eyes — Nature in this, as in everything else, being 

 perfect in making all her creatures to fulfil the object required 

 of them. Their food consists entirely of winged insects, which 

 they seize and swallow with great dexterity during their flight, 



