202 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



other viands out of Mr Fisher's hand, and carry them off directly 

 to his great insatiate pseudo-nestling." 



Another writer of parish records describes an incident of a young 

 Cuckoo being seen at the head of Monk's burn, in Midlothian, 

 " flying after a titlark, from which it got the signals when to keep 

 out of danger. The titlark was also observed feeding him, when 

 the little nurse, to get at his mouth, generally leapt on his back, 

 and made him turn round his head, which was as big as the other's 

 whole body." 



In some parts of Scotland this bird calls during the whole of 

 the summer nights at all hours. I have myself heard its well- 

 known cry about 11 P.M. on the Loch Lomond hill sides, and Mr 

 Harvie Brown informs me that in the north of Sutherlandshire 

 he has heard it at half-past 12, and again at 2 and half-past 2 

 in the morning. 



IN&B88O&B8. MEROPID^E. 



FISSIROSTRES. 



THE ROLLER. 



CO HA CIAS GARRULA. 



VERY little, of course, can be said of so rare a species as the Roller 

 is in Britain, except the mere enumeration of the localities in which 

 it has occurred. There are, indeed, but few examples to chronicle: 

 one appears to have been seen on St Kilda about twenty-five years 

 ago, and another was shot at Stevenston, in Ayrshire, as recorded by 

 the late Rev. Dr Landsborough, at one time minister of that parish. 

 A third was shot at Coulter House, near Biggar, in October, 1866. 

 The Roller has likewise been found at Dunkeld, in Perthshire, 

 and in Dumfriesshire in October, 1864, as I have been informed 

 by Sir William Jardine, who communicated a notice of the occur- 

 rence to the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Anti- 

 quarian Society in February, 1865. Mr Shearer, in a communica- 

 tion to the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh in January, 1862, 

 states that a Roller was seen and watched by himself for two or 

 three days at Ulbster, in Caithness-shire, in 1857; and Mr Harvie 

 Brown has written to inform me that a specimen killed in Suther- 

 landshire is now in the museum at Dunrobin Castle. 



Mr Thomas Edward has sent me word that one was killed at 



