432 THE ROLLER 



The young, of course, are fed on insect food in the nest ; but, as 

 already stated, Meade-Waldo has seen the old birds carrying centi- 

 pedes to the nests in Marocco. In Europe the principal food of this 

 species consists of beetles (more especially of the genera Geotrupes, 

 Carabus, Melolontha, Elater, Harpalus, etc.), Orthoptera (especially 

 Gryllotalpa and Gh-yllus). Most of these are taken on the ground, but 

 occasionally the roller has been seen to take insects on the wing. In 

 Africa it has also been recorded as feeding on lizards (Rendall), 

 locusts, scorpions, centipedes (Meade-Waldo), etc., while there is 

 little doubt that small frogs are also devoured. There is strong 

 circumstantial evidence that a hungry migrant, in default of other 

 food, will kill and eat small birds (cf. O. Reiser, Ornis JBalcanica, iii. 

 296). It is said by many writers to be purely insectivorous, but 

 there is little doubt that it also eats fruit or vegetable matter in a wild 

 state, in order to obtain the requisite moisture, for the roller is 

 apparently, like the hoopoe, naturally a non-drinking bird. Lord 

 Lilford found remains of figs in the stomach of one examined, and 

 Herr Reiser states that figs are extensively eaten in autumn in Greece. 

 One of Mr. R. Phillipps' birds ate grapes with avidity, and von Lowis 

 has observed it eating raspberries in a wild state in Livonia. In the 

 autumn both old and young birds are fat and in good condition for 

 the long journey in front of them. Late in July some have already 

 begun to move southward, and by the end of that month the first 

 arrivals are beginning to appear in Egypt, sometimes moving in small 

 flocks or family parties. In Germany the exodus begins early in 

 August and lasts to mid September, and approximately the same 

 dates hold good for Greece and Marocco. The autumnal movements 

 are carried out with more deliberation than in the spring, but by the 

 beginning of November they have all disappeared from Northern 

 Africa, and by different routes are working their way to the still little 

 known recesses of tropical Africa. 



