426 THE ROLLER 



and very similar in scheme of colour, but he is a mere speck 

 in the landscape a microscopic point of colour, while a pair of 

 rollers, or still better a flock of these marvellous birds, haunting 

 the mud cliff's and dry water-courses of the lower Danube valley, 

 is a sight never to be forgotten. 



Throughout the whole of Europe and North Africa the roller is 

 only known as a summer resident or bird of passage. His winter 

 haunts lie in the recesses of Central and Southern Africa, but some 

 of the birds which breed by the water-courses of Kashmir apparently 

 winter in the lower Indus valley. Only a small proportion extend 

 their wanderings beyond the Orange River, although a few specimens 

 have been recorded from Natal in January and February ; from King 

 William's Town, East London and Port St. John in Eastern Cape 

 Colony, occasionally in the Orange River Colony, Transvaal, Bechuana- 

 land, Namaqualand, Damaraland (in January), and Rhodesia. Farther 

 north it becomes more plentiful, and occurs in some numbers in Gaza- 

 land, while Mr. G. A. K. Marshall describes it as fairly common round 

 Salisbury in Mashonaland, arriving from the north about September 

 and leaving early in April. His supposition that it probably breeds 

 here (Ibis, 1900, p. 246) is, however, very unlikely. According to 

 Hartlaub it also reaches Madagascar, while de Bocage records it from 

 Angola, and it is also found in German and British East Africa. 

 Professor Reichenow has suggested that these African specimens may 

 belong to a distinct race, as they possess a greener tinge on the head and 

 throat. This is, however, probably only seasonal, and Dr. R. B. Sharpe 

 pointed out that a specimen from Mesopotamia, killed on August 26, 

 was moulting from a blue head into an olive-green one, similar to that 

 of the African birds. 1 It is a regular migrant in Kamerun, passing in 

 October and November, and probably also on the return passage ; 

 while Dr. Rendall records it from the Gambia, Weiss from the Island 

 of Sao Thome, and Keulemans from Principe. During its stay in its 

 winter quarters the roller is addicted to perching on the top boughs 



1 Ibis, 1902, 613. 



