78 THE BIRDS OP CALCUTTA. 



quite easy to rear if fed on raw meat and cockroaches, and 

 will grow up very tame. But they are not interesting pets, 

 for in a small cage they beat and break their beautiful 

 plumage, and in an aviary sit still so much that they are 

 nob a very great acquisition. Indeed, so sedentary are 

 the Roller's ordinary habits, and so inconspicuous are the 

 pinky drab and sea-green of his plumage in repose, that our 

 American winter visitors have called him "the surprise 

 bird," in allusion to the startling display of colour he gives 

 as he takes wing, looking like a great butterfly in his lazy 

 flapping flight. Like many of these weak-looking fliers, 

 however, he is really very active in the air, as might have 

 been seen in the case of the race-course habitue above- 

 mentioned when he was badgered by the local crows, who 

 seemed to cherish a prejudice against him. 



The Nilkant, as the Roller is called by the natives, is 

 with them a sacred bird, and once at least a throne has 

 been gained by the holy fowl no doubt a trained specimen 

 alighting on the successful candidate's head. And cer- 

 tainly if beauty deserves the honour of worship, the Roller 

 has full right to it, more especially as he is absolutely harm- 

 less ; for, when he does fly, he is almost the most effective 

 bird one could have in a landscape. Fortunately, al- 

 though I fear many have been killed for their plumage, 

 the Roller is, over a large part of this country, exceedingly 

 common, and extends westwards through Persia to 

 the Levant. Hereabouts he is on the confines of his 

 eastern range, for from about the longitude of Calcutta 

 he begins to intermarry with the darker Burmese species, 

 called by naturalists Coracias affinis, our bird being Cora- 



