80 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



also very timid, and the same thing was noted about this 

 latter species (Coracias garrula) by Bechstein in his work 

 on cage birds more than a century ago ; so that possibly 

 the peculiarity runs in the family. The European Roller, 

 which also occurs in the extreme north-west of India, and 

 comes to England frequently to get shot and " recorded," 

 is a migratory species, with much more pale blue and less 

 purple in its plumage than our " Blue- jay." Curiously 

 enough, it is sometimes called in German the Birch- jay, so 

 that the superficial resemblance to the jay has struck 

 Europeans independently in two distant countries. 



The Americans, however, do not seem to have been 

 taken in, being no doubt too well acquainted with their 

 own Blue- jay (Cyanocitta cristata), which really is in a 

 literal sense what its name proclaims it to be. There are 

 no Rollers in America, and when Brother Jonathan gets 

 over the unreasonable horror of acclimatization with 

 which his too successful experiment with Philip Sparrow 

 has filled him, he cannot do better than set to work to 

 supply the deficiency with a big consignment of our lovely 

 Indian species ; for the Roller would not only be a great 

 ornament to the prairies, but a very useful ally in grass- 

 hopper plagues. 



