280 BIRDS. 



CoRACiAS*, Lin. 



The Rollers have a strong bill, compressed near the point, which is a 

 little hooked. The nostrils are oblong, placed at the edge of the feathers, 

 but without being covered by them; the feet short and stout. They be- 

 long to the eastern continent, and are like the Jays in their habits, and in 

 the'^loose feathers on the forehead. Their colours are vivid, but rarely 

 harmonious. Some peculiarities of their anatomy approximate them to 

 the Kingfishers and Pies, such as two emarginations in their sternum, a 

 single pair of muscles to their inferior larynx, and a membranous stomach f. 



The Rollers, properly so called, 

 Have a straight bill, every where higher than wide. There is one in 

 Europe. 



Coracias garrula, L. ; Enl. 486. (The Common Roller). Sea- 

 green; back and scapulars fawn-coloured; pure blue on the tip of 

 the wing ; about the size of the Jay. It is a very wild bird, although 

 sociable enough with its fellows, noisy, builds in the hollows of trees, 

 and migrates in winter. It feeds on worms, insects, and small frogs. 

 There are some Rollers foreign to Europe, which have a square 

 tail;;};; the external quills in that of the European species, however, 

 are somewhat elongated in the male, the first indication of their great 

 length in several others §. 



CoLARis II, Cuv. 



Differs from Coracias in a shorter and more arcuated bill, and particu- 

 larly in the enlargement of its base, which is more broad than high**. 



ParadisjEa, Lin. 



The Birds of Paradise, like the Crows, have a strong, straight, com- 

 pressed bill, without any emarginations, and with covered nostrils; but 

 the influence of the climate they inhabit, an influence extended to birds 



* This name, consecrated by the authority of Linnaeus, has been changed by 

 Vieillot into that of Galgalus, which, among the ancient Latins, belonged to the 

 Oriole. 



f Nitsch, ap. Nauman, II., p. 156. 



X Coracias bengnlen.iis, Enl. 285, is evidently the same as the indica, Edw. 326, 

 and as the fig. of Albin, 1,17, quoted under caudaia; — Coracias viridis, Nob.; Vaill. 

 1,31; VieilLGal. 1 10;— C. rminc^fj/, Vaill., pi. G. 



§ Coracias ahyssinica, Enl. 626, and its variety C. senegala, Enl. 326, Edw. 327. 

 C. catcdafa is merely an individual of the same species, disfigured by the addition of 

 the head of a hengalensis (Vaill. loc. cit., p. 105). — Cor. cyanogaster, Nob., Vaill., 

 loc. cit. pi. xxvi. 



N. B. Cor. caffra, where Shaw quotes Edw. 320, can only be a Thrush {Turdus 

 nitens) ; — C. sinensis, Enl. 620, by its emarginated beak also approaches either the 

 Thrushes or the Shrikes. M. Shaw thinks that C. viridis, Lath, is an Alcedo. — C. 

 strepera and C. varia, Lath, are Cassicans; C. militaris and C. scutata, Shaw, 

 Piauhaus; — C. mexicana, Seb. 1, pi. Ixiv, f. 5, is the Jay of Canada; — C.cayana, 

 Enl. 616, aTanager. 



II Col/iris is the Greek name of an unknown bird. — Vieillot has changed it into 



that of EURYSTOMUS, 



*• Coracias orientalis, Enl. 619; — Cor. madagascariensis, Enl. 501; — Cnr. afra, 

 Lath. Vaill. loc. cit., pi. xxxv. 



