137 



COPROPHAGI. 



CORACIAS. 



138 



Woodbridge, and on the sea-coast of Felixstow and Bawdsey, it is 

 worked to a considerable extent. In addition to these nodules, are 

 found the fragments of the bones of various forma of Cetacete, all of 

 which contain large quantities of phosphate of lime, and are collected 

 under the name of Coprolites. It is still a question of interest as to 

 how the nodules not having an organic basis have been formed. It 

 has been supposed that all deposits of phosphate of lime are derived 

 from the destruction of organised beings, but it is very evident that 

 phosphate of lime must have existed in some form or another before 

 the creation of either vegetable or animal beings. The increase also 

 of the number of individuals of species of plants and animals demand 

 tha.t there should be some constant supply of this substance from the 

 mineral kingdom. Whatever may be the result of further inquiry on 

 this point, there can be little doubt of the impropriety of calling all 

 deposits of phosphate of lime Coprolites. A better general name and 

 which is not exposed to the objection of a false theory would be 

 PlwiphaHtt. [PHOSPHATITE.] 



COPROPHAGI. [SCARAB.BIDES.] 



COPTIS (from xowru, to cut), a genus of Plants belonging to the 

 natural order Ranunculacece. It has 5-6 sepals, coloured, petaloid, 

 deciduous; the petals small, cucullate; the stamens 20-25; the 

 capsules 6-10, on long stalks, somewhat stellate, membranous, ovate, 

 oblong, tipped with the style ; 4-6 seeded. 



C. trifolia. Gold Thread, has ternate leaves, obovate blunt toothed 

 hardly 3-lobed leaflets ; the scape 1-flowered. It is a native of Ice- 

 land, Norway, Greenland, Siberia, and Kamtchatka, in swampy woods, 

 and also of the cedar-swamps of North America, from Canada to 

 Virginia. It is a small plant with white flowers and a yellow fibrous 

 rhizoma which runs in all directions. The French in Canada call it 

 Tissavoyanne jaune. A decoction of the leaves and stalks is used by 

 the Indians for giving a yellow colour to cloth and skins. The rhizo- 

 mata are bitter, and when administered as a medicine act in the same 

 manner as quassia, gentian, and other bitters, but are not astringent ; 

 it is a popular remedy in the United States for aphthous affections of 

 the month in children. 



C. asplenifolia has biternate leaves, the leaflets rather pinnat ifiil, very 

 acutely serrated, the scape ^-flowered. It is a native of Japan and the 

 north-west coast of America. 



Both species are pretty plants, and will thrive in a peat soil. A moist 

 situation agrees with them, or they may be planted in pots among alpine 

 plants. They may be propagated by seed, or by dividing the roots. 



(Don, Dichlamydeoui Plants ; Lindley, Flora, Medical) 



CORACES. [CORACIAS.] 



CORACIAS, a genus of Birds belonging to the Inaessorial or Perch- 

 ing division. 



Linnteus arranged the genus Coraciai between Coma and Oriolut. 

 Pennant ('British Zoology') gives it a position between the Nut- 

 Cracker and the Oriole ; M. Dume'ril placed it between the Birds of 

 Paradise and the Crows ; and Meyer arranged it in his second order, 

 Coraca, among which it stands in Illiger's method. Cuvier placed the 

 Rollers (Coraciai, Linn.) between the Crows (Corviu, Linn.) and the 

 Birds of Paradise (Paraditea, Linn.), the portion assigned to them by 

 Lace'pede ; and includes under that title the Rollers properly so called 

 (Coraciai garrula, Linn. &c.), and the Rolles (Colarit). 



Mr. Vigors places them in his family Corrida". [CoRvn>..] 



M. Lesson's family Euryttomido! (Rolliers of Cuv.) consists of the 

 Rollers (Ijalyulut, Itrisson, and Coraciat, Linn.) ; the genus Rolle 

 (Eurystomiu, Vieill. [MEROPID.EJ, Colarit, Cuv., Coraciat, Linn.) ; the 

 genus Mainatus (Etdabes, Cuv., Gracvla, Linn.) ; and the genus Minn, 

 Less. M. Lesson rejects the term Coraciat, because many authors 

 have so dismembered it, according to their different views, that a 

 confusion calculated to produce error is the result. 



In the system of Mr. Swainson, who retains the generic name 

 Coraciat, the Rollers appear among the Meropidtt. [MEROPlDjS.] 



The Prince of Canino arranges the genus Coraciai, giving as an 

 example the common Roller, ( C. garrula, Linn. ) in the family 

 Ampdidar. ('Birds of Europe and North America.') 



In Mr. Gould's great work on the 'Birds of Europe,' the Roller 

 (C. yarrula) comes down between the Bee-Eater (Meropi apiatter) and 

 Kingfisher (Alcedo atpida). 



Mr. Yarrell (' British Birds ') arranges the common Roller under 

 the family Maropida. 



C. garrula, the Roller. It is the Pica Marina and Pica Merdaria of the 

 Italians ; Rollier of the French ; Birk-Heher, Blaue-Racke, and 

 Mandelkrahe, of the Germans ; Spransk Kraka, Blakraka, and Alle- 

 kraka, of the Swedes ; Ellekrage of Brunich ; and Rholydd of the 

 Welh. The bill is black towards the point, becoming brown at the 

 base with a few bristles ; irides of two circles yellow and brown ; head, 

 neck, breast, and belly various shades of verditer-blue changing to 

 pale green ; shoulders azure-blue, back reddish-brown, rump purple, 

 wing-primaries dark bluish-black, edge lighter, tail-feathers pale 

 greenish-blue, the outer ones tipped with black, those in the middle 

 aUo much darker in colour ; legs reddish-brown ; in old males the 

 outer tail-feathers are somewhat elongated. 



Adult females differ but little from the males ; young birds do not 

 attain their brilliant colour till the second year. (Gould, ' Birds of 

 Kiirxpo.') Length about 13 inches. 



This bird appears to hare a wide geographical range. In Europe, 



it is found in Denmark, Sweden (where it arrives with the Cuckoo), 

 and the southern provinces of Russia ; is more common in Germany 

 than France, where however it has been found in Provence ; and it 

 has been taken at Gibraltar. In Italy, according to Prince Bonaparte, 

 it is rather common, arriving in the spring and departing in September. 

 In Malta and Sicily it is exposed for sale in the shops of poulterers, 

 and is said to have the taste of a turtle-dove. In the Morea it is con- 

 sidered a delicacy in the autumn, when it is fat with its summer food. 

 It has been captured at Aleppo, and at Trebizond and Erzerum. It 

 visits the countries between the Black and the Caspian seas ; and 

 Dr. von Siebold and M. Burger include it among the birds of Japan. 

 In North Africa it is found from Marocco to Egypt. Flocks were seen 

 by Adanson at Senegal, and he concluded that they passed the winter 

 there. Dr. Andrew Smith records it among the birds of South Africa. 

 In Great Britain it has been killed in Cornwall, in Suffolk, and Norfolk, 

 in Cambridgeshire, in Yorkshire, Northumberland, Perthshire, the east 

 of Scotland, and Orkney. It has been only occasionally seen in Ireland. 



The Roller (Ooraciaa garrula), 



Deep forests of oak and birch appear to be the favourite haunts of 

 the Roller. In the ' Annals of Natural History ' for 1839, it is stated 

 by a traveller in Asia Minor, that the Roller, which was most common 

 throughout the south and west parts of the country wherever the 

 magpie was not found (for it was not seen in the same district with 

 that bird), was observed to fall through the air like a Tumbler Pigeon. 

 Temmiuck states that it makes its nest in the holes of trees, where it 

 lays from four to seven eggs of a lustrous white. M. Vieillot states 

 that in Malta, where trees are scarce, the bird builds on the ground. 

 In Barbary it has been observed to form its nest in the banks of the 

 Sheliff, Booberak, and other rivers ; and Pennant remarks that where 

 trees are wanting, it makes it in clayey banks. These last modes of 

 nidification bring it very close to the Bee-Eaters and Kingfishers, whose 

 eggs quite resemble those of the Roller in colour and shape, and only 

 vary in size. The male takes his turn to sit. The food is very varied, 

 according to Temminck, who enumerates moles, crickets, cockchafers, 

 grasshoppers, millipedes, and other insects, slugs, and worms. Gould 

 states that it feeds on worms, slugs, and insects generally. Yarrell 

 informs us that the food consists of worms, slugs, insects in their 

 various stages, and berries. 



Bechstein observes that till lately he had thought that the Roller 

 was untameable ; but Dr. Meyer of Offenbach had convinced him to 

 the contrary, having himself reared them in his room by the following 

 method : The young ones must be taken from the nest when only 

 half grown, and fed on little bits of cow's-heart or any other meat 

 which is lean and tender, till they can feed alone ; small frogs, worms, 

 and insects may then be added. Its mode of killing and swallowing 

 insects is thus described : it commences by seizing and crushing them 

 with its bill, and then throws them into the air several times, in order 

 to receive them in its throat, which is very capacious. When the 

 morsel is too large, or the insect is still alive, the bird strikes it hard 

 against the ground, and begins again to throw it into the air till it 

 falls not across, but so as to thread the throat, when it is easily swal- 

 lowed. Bechstein says that he had never seen the bird drink. The 

 translator of Bechstein's interesting little book states, that he once 

 saw a Roller drink after having swallowed dry ants'-eggs ; it then ate 

 greedily of lettuce and endive. " Another which I kept," adds the 

 translator, " liked the outside of lettuces and spinach after having 

 eaten insects, especially beetles, which are very heating. To judge 

 from what I have observed, the Roller is by nature wild and solitary ; 

 it seldom changes its situation except to seek its food or to hide itself 

 from strangers. It is a good thing, whether kept in a cage or let 

 range, always to have a box in its way, in which it may take refuge 



