THE BLUE-JAY. 79 



das indica. The Burmese bird is rather larger than ours 

 and very much darker in the general tone of its plumage, 

 although curiously enough the tail is lighter, not having 

 the purple band at the tip which so well sets off that of the 

 Indian bird. The young, also, of the Burmese Roller are 

 different from the parents, being much lighter and duller. 

 This species must be found wild near Calcutta, though I 

 have never seen it even on the telegraph wires by the rail- 

 way ; but I have seen some more or less pure Burmese 

 specimens brought in, fresh-caught, for sale, and have 

 successfully " meated them off," as bird-fanciers say, 

 together with the common bird. For it is easy enough to 

 get adult Rollers to feed in confinement if you start them 

 on cockroaches all more or less alive and kicking. 

 Water they do not constantly require, for they seldom ap- 

 pear to drink when they have the chance, in this total 

 abstinence again resembling the kingfishers ; but unlike 

 those birds they not only bathe, but wallow and shuffle in 

 dust like a fowl when they want a clean-up. 



It is curious that, being so easy to keep in confinement, 

 the Indian Roller has so seldom been sent to England. 

 Some time ago a well-known London fancier of birds ob- 

 tained a very seedy specimen from a dealer, and more 

 recently my friend Mr. E. W. Harper of this city succeeded 

 in sending one to the London Zoo, where it is still in 

 good health. The curious thing was that, though tame 

 enough in Calcutta, the bird became for a time very wild 

 and nervous in London. But the very intelligent keeper 

 who had it in charge told me that he had found the Euro- 

 pean Rollers, which he had had for some time in his care, 



