THE SWALLOW-TAILED INDIAN ROLLER. 



.WALLOW-TAILED Indian 

 Rollers are natives of North 

 eastern Africa and Senegam- 

 bia, and also the interior of 

 the Niger district. The bird is so 

 called from its way of occasionally 

 rolling or turning over in its flight, 

 somewhat after the fashion of a tumb 

 ler pigeon. A traveller in describing 

 the habits of the Roller family, says : 

 "On the 1 2th of April I reached 

 Jericho alone, and remained there in 

 solitude for several days, during which 

 time I had many opportunities of 

 observing the grotesque habits of the 

 Roller. For several successive even 

 ings, great flocks of Rollers mustered 

 shortly before sunset on some dona 

 trees near the fountain, with all the 

 noise but without the decorum of 

 Rooks. After a volley of discordant 

 screams, from the sound of which it 

 derives its Arabic name of "schurk- 

 rak," a few birds would start from their 

 perches and commence overhead a 

 series of somersaults. In a moment or 

 two they would be followed by the 

 whole flock, and these gambols would 

 be repeated for a dozen times or more. 

 Everywhere it takes its perch on 

 some conspicuous branch or on the 

 top of a rock, where it can see and be 

 seen. The bare tops of the fig trees, 

 before they put forth their leaves, are 



in the cultivated terraces, a particularly 

 favorite resort. In the barren Ghor I 

 have often watched it perched uncon 

 cernedly on a knot of gravel or marl 

 in the plain, watching apparently for 

 the emergence of beetles from the sand. 

 Elsewhere I have not seen it settle on 

 the ground. 



Like Europeans in the East, it can 

 make itself happy without chairs and 

 tables in the desert, but prefers a com 

 fortable easy chair when it is to be 

 found. Its nest I have seen in ruins, 

 in holes in rocks, in burrows, in steep 

 sand cliffs, but far more generally in 

 hollow trees. The colony in the Wady 

 Kelt used burrows excavated by them 

 selves, and many a hole did they relin 

 quish, owing to the difficulty of work 

 ing it. So cunningly were the nests 

 placed under a crumbling, treacher 

 ous ledge, overhanging a chasm of 

 perhaps one or two hundred feet, 

 that we were completely foiled in our 

 siege. We obtained a nest of six eggs, 

 quite fresh, in a hollow tree in Bashan, 

 near Gadara, on the 6th of May. 



The total length of the Roller is 

 about twelve inches. The Swallow- 

 tailed Indian Roller, of which we pre 

 sent a specimen, differs from the Euro- 

 peon Roller only in having the outer 

 tail feathers elongated to an extent of 

 several inches." 



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