104 



Coloration. Narrow forehead and chin pale brownish rufous; 

 crown and nape bluish green, brighter and bluer above the eyes ; 

 hind neck and sides of neck deep vinous ; back, scapulars, and 

 tertiaries dull greenish brown ; small coverts near the edge of the 

 wing deep purplish blue, other coverts light greyish green, except 

 the outer large primary and the tips of the other greater coverts, 

 which, with the edge of the wing, all under wing-coverts, and 

 axillaries, are pale blue ; quills deep purplish blue ; a broad light 

 blue band across the terminal half of the primaries, the tips dark, 

 with the outer webs greenish. Rump light greenish blue, mixed 

 with deep blue ; upper tail-coverts chiefly deep blue ; middle tail- 

 feathers dull dark green, basal part near shaft blue ; other tail- 

 feathers deep blue, crossed near the tip by a broad pale blue band, 

 wider on the outer feathers. Sides of head and throat purplish 

 liiac, with broad whitish shaft-stripes ; breast vinous rufous, with 

 less marked white shaft-stripes ; abdomen and lower tail-coverts 

 pale blue like wing-lining. 



Bill blackish brown; iris greyish brown ; eyelid and naked skin 

 round the eye pale gamboge ; feet brownish yellow (Butler). 



Length about 13 ; tail 5 ; wing 7"3 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from gape 1*7. 



Distribution. Throughout India and Ceylon in suitable localities, 

 not ascending the Himalayas nor the hills of the Peninsula in 

 general, and wanting both in thick jungle and in open treeless 

 deserts. East of Calcutta this species is replaced by C. affinis, 

 but to the westward, though it becomes rare in the Northern 

 Punjab and wanting in Kashmir, it is found sparingly throughout 

 Baluchistan, all round the shores of the Persian Gulf to Muscat, 

 and stragglers have even been obtained in Asia Minor and on the 

 Bosphorus. 



Habits, <$fc. This is one of the typical Indian birds familiar to all 

 inhabitants of the country. It is commonly found in cultivated 

 tracts on trees about villages, and in thin tree and bush jungle. 

 It is, as Blyth remarks, one of the birds that perch on telegraph, 

 wires. Jerdon says : " It generally takes its perch on the top or 

 outermost branch of some high tree, and, on spying an insect on 

 the ground, which it can do at a very great distance, it flies direct 

 to the spot, seizes it, and returns to its perch to swallow it. A 

 favourite perch of the Roller is a bowrie pole, or some leafless tree, 

 whence it can see well all round, also old buildings, a haystack or 

 other elevated spot, sometimes a low bush or a heap of earth or of 

 stones. When seated, it puffs out the feathers of its head and 

 neck. I have on several occasions seen one pursue an insect in 

 the air for some distance, and when the winged termites issue 

 from their nest after rain, the Roller, like almost every other bird, 

 catches them on the wing." (The Roller is also conspicuous at 

 jungle fires, hunting for insects, and perhaps for lizards, in company 

 with kites, crows, and king-crows.) " It flies in general with a 

 slow but continued flapping of its wings, not unlike the crow, 

 though more buoyant ; but it has the habit of occasionally making 

 sudden darts in the air in all directions. Its food is chiefly large 



