BLUE-BODIED ROLLER. 109 



strange mistakes about this bird; he says it is 

 the Garrulus cyanogaster of Vieillot, a name no- 

 where to be found in the latest and most complete 

 of his works ; and he takes upon himself to correct 

 this author,* who states it is found in Africa, by 

 asserting it to be an inhabitant of Java. It might 

 have been as well had he stated on what authority 

 this rested. It is, however, a false one, since no 

 less than three specimens have come to our hands 

 direct from Senegal. 



Size rather larger than the Coracias Abyssiniea. 

 The whole of the head, neck, throat, and breast, is 

 enveloped, as it were, in a hood of very light drab 

 or fawn colour, glossed with green, which changes 

 its tint in different directions of light; the drab 

 sometimes assumes a warmer ferruginous tinge, 

 while in others it seems changed into a light but 

 dull yellowish-green: the front, chin, and eye- 

 brows are paler, and almost white : a black mantle 

 spreads over the interscapulars and the scapular- 

 covers: the wings are of the deepest and most 

 brilliant mazarine blue, except the basal half of 

 the quills, which are of a light beryl or blue-green 

 colour : the lower part of the back and upper tail- 

 covers are deep blue, so also are the corresponding 

 parts on the under plumage; that is, from the 

 breast to the vent: the tail is light sea-green, 

 brightest beneath ; its form is decidedly forked ; all 

 the feathers are pointed, the two middle ones 



* Habitat in insula Java, et non ut el. Vieillot indisat. in 

 Africa. 



