COBACIAS. 55 



stealthily than usual, I heard the distinct flap of a wing just over 

 my head, and the next moment there was the usual muffled call, 

 and the bird was sitting on its perch. The next morning I re- 

 turned in more hopeful spirits and entered the tope with my eye 

 fixed on the tree under which I was standing, when the bird flapped 

 its wing : in a moment out from a hole flew Mrs. Roller straight to 

 the usual perch, and gave her call. The hole contained three eggs, 

 and was, 1 should say, the same hole in which the year before a 

 pair of Athene brama had their nest." 



Eef erring to Rajpootana in general, Lieut. H. E. Barnes writes : 

 " The Indian Roller or Blue Jay breeds during April and May in 

 holes in trees, old walls, or under the eaves of houses. A little 

 grass and a few feathers suffice for a nest." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say: 

 " Common, but does not breed." And the former gentleman informs 

 us that this Roller breeds in the Satpuras, Akrani, Pimpalnir, and 

 Xan durbar jungles in March and April." 



Mr. Gr. Yidal, writing from the South Konkan, says : " Tolerably 

 common inland in well-wooded country, but very much less so 

 near the coast. Breeds in March." 



Mr. Rhodes "VV. Morgan, writing from South India, says : 

 " The Indian Roller breeds in March in holes of trees. The tam- 

 arind and banyan are generally chosen for this purpose. The eggs 

 are usually two in number and of a pure and glossy white. There 

 is no nest." 



Mr. C. J. "W. Taylor writes from Mysore : " After the burning 

 of a jungle I noticed a single bird flying round and round a par- 

 tially burnt tree. On approaching I noticed that the tree had a 

 number of holes in it, so 1 got up, and at the top of an arm that 

 had broken off short I found the dead body of a female resting on 

 two eggs. She must have either been too frightened at the im- 

 mense volumes of fire and smoke that rolled round her to escape, 

 or, perhaps, ' faithful to the last,' had voluntarily perished on her 



Colonel Legge says : "In Ceylon the Roller breeds from Jan- 

 uary until June, chiefly rearing its young about March." 



Mr. J. R. Cripps remarks of this Roller at Furreedpore in Eastern 

 Bengal : " Common, and a permanent resident. On the 3rd March 

 1878, I found four fresh pure white eggs of this species. Just at 

 the corner of a ryot's house stood an old date-tree about 20 feet 

 high, whose top had fallen off and the heart of the tree had rotted 

 away for about a foot in depth ; in the hole thus made the birds 

 had laid their eggs without forming any lining. I have frequently 

 noticed this bird at the hottest time of the day descend to the 

 ground and sit with outstretched wings in the sun, and remain so 

 for some time." 



The eggs are a very broad oval, in some instances almost spherical 

 and, like those of the Bee-eaters, they are of the purest china-white 

 and highly glossy. In appearance the eggs are precisely similar 



