82 PICARIAN BIRDS. 



the throat streaked with bright purplish blue, forming a gular patch, the total 

 length being eleven inches. It inhabits the Burmese countries, extending down to 

 the Malayan Peninsula and to the islands of Borneo, Java, and the Philippines. 

 Bourdillon, after stating that he was attracted by the chattering of a pair of these 

 rollers, says that " on going to the spot I found them engaged in ejecting from a 

 hole in a stump, about forty feet from the ground, a pair of our hill-mynas. One 

 of the rollers was in the mouth of the hole, and enlarging it by tearing away with 

 its beak the soft rotten wood; the other roller, seated on a tree close by, was 

 doing most of the chattering, making an occasional swoop at the mynas whenever 

 they ventured too close. I watched the birds for some time until the mynas went 

 off, and there and then began building in a pinney tree within the distance of one 

 hundred yards. Ten days after I sent for some hillmen who managed to ascend 

 by tying up sticks with strips of cane, in the way they erect ladders to obtain the 

 wild honey from the tallest trees in the forest. It was past six o'clock in the 

 evening before a man reached the hole in which the birds had bred. He found not 

 the slightest vestige of a nest, but a few chips of rotten wood, upon which were 

 laid the three eggs. These I found to be slightly set. While the man was climbing 

 the tree, the birds behaved in a very ridiculous and excited manner. Seated side 

 by side on a bough, they alternately jerked head and tail, keeping up an incessant 

 harsh chatter, and as the crisis approached, and the man drew nearer their property, 

 they dashed repeatedly at his head." 



THE KIROUMBOS. 



Family LEPTOSOMATID^E. 



The remarkable birds commonly known by their native name of Kiroumbos 

 are confined to Madagascar and some of the neighbouring islands, and may be 

 regarded as aberrant rollers, although they also exhibit affinities to the under- 

 mentioned frog-mouths, in the possession of " powder-down " patches on the sides 

 of the lower part of the back. Only two members of the family are known, both 

 of which are included in the genus Leptosoma. The bill is roller-like, but the 

 nostrils are quite peculiar as regards their situation, being placed in the middle of 

 the upper mandible, and are shut in by a horny plate ; while the loral plumes are 

 curved forward so as to entirely hide the base of the bill. The feet are semi- 

 scansorial, that is to say, the fourth toe is cleft to the base and partly reversible, 

 and the tail-feathers are ten in number. The sexes are different in colour, the 

 male having some considerable metallic sheen, and the upper surface being green 

 glossed with a distinct coppery shade ; while the tail is greyish black, glossed with 

 metallic green, and, more slightly, with coppery red. The entire under surface is 

 dark ashy grey, becoming white on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; and the 

 head is crested and of a leaden grey colour, glossed with metallic green and copper ; 

 the total length being 16 inches. The female is quite different from the male, 

 being rufous brown above, with the head black, and the sides of the head and back 

 of the neck barred with black ; the back spotted with buff and glossed with dull 

 green and copper ; the tail brown, blackish towards the tip, which is edged with 



