I'KKLIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTBB 



and Cyprus, and visits the S. of Sardinia, but is absent from Corsica. Eastward it 

 is plentiful in the Balkan Peninsula and S. Russia, and also occurs during summer 

 in Asia Minor, Palestine, and Persia. The paler Transcaspian birds have been 

 described as a local race. In Western Siberia and Turkestan it ranges occasionally 



M ! ir is ( >m-k i .">." V Lit.). :ut<I ;il<. throu.jh At u'huinM ,m t<. K.c-liinir ami N'.nth- 



west India. In Africa it is also a summer resident in the north- west, but only 

 occurs on passage in Egypt. To its breeding-grounds in the northern hemisphere 

 it is only a summer visitor, and its winter quarters are in tropical and southern 

 Africa as well as in India. In South Africa it is not common south of the Orange 

 River, but has been recorded from Natal, Orange River Colony, Transvaal, Damara- 

 land, and about five times in Cape Colony, [r. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A bird of passage in exceedingly small numbers. The 

 majority of the records are for the autumnal passage, but a fair proportion are 

 referable to the spring journey. The parts of our area most frequently visited 

 are the southern and eastern districts of England and Scotland, especially of the 

 former. But most other parts of Great Britain and many districts of Ireland are 

 occasionally visited ; there is even a single record from St. Kilda. (Cf. Saunders, 

 ///. Man. B. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 281 ; and Witherby and Ticehurst, British Birch, 

 i. pp. 281-82.) It has been recorded thrice from Heligoland. (Cf. Saunders, foe. cit. ; 

 and Gatke, Vogdwarte Helgoland, Eng. trans., 1895, p. 422.) These facts seem to 

 indicate Sweden as the summer home of the rollers which migrate through the 

 British area. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Does not breed in the British Isles. 



5. Food. Principally insects, although fruit is undoubtedly eaten to some 

 extent in autumn. As most of its prey is captured on the ground, the insects taken 

 are chiefly Coleoptera (beetles) and Orthoptera (grasshoppers, earwigs, mole 

 crickets, etc.). For fuller details see Eckstein and Rorig's results : those of the 

 former are quoted at length in Naumann's Naturgeschichtt der Vogel Mitideuropas, 

 iv. pp. 367-68. Small frogs, lizards, scorpions, centipedes, and locusts are stated 

 to form part of its diet abroad. Cf. also p. 23. [r. c. R. J.] 



