ROCKIER ROLLER 793 



acting on the hint first given by Strickland, suggested that the 

 story of the Rue, though it may have originated much further to 

 the eastward, became localized in Madagascar through some 

 rumour of ^pyornis and its stupendous eggs, one of which (now in 

 the British Museum, and measuring more than 13 inches by 9'5) 

 he figured of the natural size ; 1 but there seems no doubt that the 

 largest species of dSpyornis as yet found by no means equalled in 

 bulk or height the larger forms of Dinornithes. Herr R. Burck- 

 hardt (Paldeontol. Abhandl. vi. Heft 2, 1893) has referred some 

 remains obtained by the late Dr. Hildebrandt to a fifth species 

 JEi. hildebrandti. 



ROCKIER, the name of a Pigeon, presumably Columba 

 commonly called the Rock-DoVE ; but (teste Gilb. White, N. H. 

 Selborne, Lett. xliv. to Pennant) applied to the Stock -Dove, 

 C. anas, so long confounded with it (p. 163). 



RODE-GOOSE (Germ. Rotgans\ a local name given by fowlers 

 to the BRANT-GOOSE (pp. 57, 375). 



ROERDOMP, the Dutch name of the BITTERN (p. 40), commonly 

 used by colonists in South Africa. 



ROLLER, a very beautiful bird, so called from its way of 

 occasionally rolling or turning over in its flight, 2 somewhat after 

 the fashion of a Tumbler-Pigeon. It is the Coracias garrulus of 

 ornithology, and is widely though not very numerously spread over 

 Europe and Western Asia in summer, breeding so far to the north- 

 ward as the middle of Sweden, but retiring to winter in Africa. It 

 occurs almost every year in some part or other of the British 

 Islands, from Cornwall to the Shetlands, while it has visited Ireland 

 several times and is even recorded from St. Kilda. But it is only 

 as a wanderer that it comes hither, since there is no evidence of its 

 having ever attempted to breed in Great Britain ; and indeed its 

 conspicuous appearance for it is nearly as big as a Daw, and very 

 brightly coloured would forbid its being ever allowed to escape 

 the gun of the always-ready murderers of stray birds. Except the 

 back, scapulars and inner cubitals, which are bright reddish-brown, 

 the plumage of both sexes is almost entirely blue of various shades, 



1 One possessed by the late Mr. Rowley was said to measure 12 '25 by 9 '75 

 inches. He referred it to a distinct species which he named dE. grandidicri. 

 Dr. von Nathusius has described (Zeitschr. wissensch. Zool. 1871, pp. 330-334, pi. 

 xxv.) the microscopical examination of the egg-shell in ^Epyornis. 



2 Gesner in 1555 said that the bird was thus called, and for this reason, near 

 Strasburg, but the name seems not to be generally used in Germany, where the 

 bird is commonly called Hake, apparently from its harsh note. The French have 

 kept the name Rollier. It is a curious fact that the Roller, notwithstanding its 

 occurrence in the Levant and conspicuous appearance, cannot be identified with 

 any species mentioned by Aristotle. 



