CORACIAS. 105 



insects, grasshoppers, crickets, Mantidce, and even beetles, occasion- 

 ally a small fieldmouse or shrew." " The Boiler has a very harsh 

 grating cry or scream, which it always utters when disturbed and 

 often at other times also." " The Nilkant is sacred to Siva, who 

 assumed its form, and at the feast of the Dusserah at Nagpur, one 

 or more used to be liberated by the Rajah." The liberation of this 

 bird takes place during other Hindu ceremonies in various parts of 

 India. 



In most parts of India the Boiler is resident, but it leaves the 

 open Bombay Deccan for better wooded tracts, according to several 

 observers, during the breeding-season. It breeds from March in 

 Upper India, from January in Ceylon, till June or July, but chiefly 

 in March, April, and May, making use of a hole in a tree, or 

 sometimes in an old wall or the roof of a house. The nest is 

 generally lined with a varying amount of vegetable fibre, grass, a 

 few feathers or some old rags, but the lining is often omitted 

 altogether. The eggs are a broad oval, of the purest china-white 

 and very glossy, usually 4 in number (occasionally 5) ; they measure 

 about 1-3 by 1-06. 



1023. Coracias affinis. TJie Burmese Roller. 



Coracias affinis, McClelland, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 164 ; Blyth, J.A.S. B. 

 xiv, p. 190 ; id. Cat. p. 51 ; Horsf. $ M. Cat. ii, p. 574 ; Jerdon, B. L 

 i, p. 217 ; Hume, S. F. iii, pp. 50, 262 ; v, p. 18 ; xi, p. 43 ; id. Cat. 

 no. 124 ; Blyth 8f Wald. Birds Burm. p. 72 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. 

 vi, p. 72 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped,, Aves, p. 581 ; Oates, B. B. ii, 

 p. 69 ; Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) iv, p. 589 ; Oates in 

 Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 56 ; Sharpe, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 548 ; 

 id. Cat. B. M. xvii, p. 13. 



Katnas, Konsa, Assam ; Tak-ral, Lepcha ; Hnet-Kah, Burm. 



Coloration. Head above pale dull green, passing into bright pale 

 verditer-blue on the broad and long supercilia ; back, scapulars, 

 and tertiaries olive-brown ; smaller and median wing-coverts dark 

 blue, greater secondary-coverts bluish green, greater primary- 

 coverts pale blue, quiUs deep blue with a bar of pale blue across 

 the terminal half of the primaries ; rump deep blue ; upper tail- 

 coverts pale blue ; middle tail-feathers dusky green, the others 

 deep blue at the base, light blue on the terminal half, slightly 

 tipped with dusky ; sides of head, chin, and throat purplish blue, the 

 throat-feathers with shining blue shaft-stripes ; breast vinaceous 

 brown, passing on lower abdomen into dark, then into pale blue ; 

 wing-lining deep purplish blue throughout. 



Bill dark brownish black, mouth yellow ; edges of the eyelids, 

 lores, and skin at the back of the eye yellowish orange ; iris brown ; 

 legs yellowish brown. 



Length about 13 ; tail 4'75 ; wing 7'5 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from 

 gape 1*7. 



Distribution. Throughout Burma except in the extreme south 

 of Tenasserhn, also in Siain and Cochin China, and through the 



