390 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



The Coraciadse are characteristic of the Ethiopian and Indian regions, though one 

 species, the common roller (Coracias garrula), is extensively distributed over the tem- 

 perate western portions of the Palaearctic region, and a few species of the blue-colored 

 broad-bill rollers (Eurysiomus) enter parts of the Australian and Austro-Maylayan 

 regions. None of the rollers are found in the New World. 



The island of Madagascar possesses three species of rollers, so different inter 

 se that they are regarded as types of different genera, and so different from all 

 other rollers that a separate sub-family has been established for their reception. The 

 Brachypteracianas, therefore, consist of three genera, Brachypteracias, Atelornis, and 

 Geobiastes, which are not found anywhere else than in Madagascar. They are charac- 



FJG. 190. Coracias garrula, roller. 



terized by their long tarsus, and their nocturnal, ground-feeding habits, hence they 

 have been called ground-rollers. The Atelornis pittoides is gorgeously colored, very 

 much after the fashion of a Pitta, and, as remarked by Messrs. Roch and Newton, it is 

 singular that such a brightly colored species should be nocturnal in its habits. Structur- 

 ally the ground-rollers show relationship to the next family, the Leptosomatidae. 

 The accompanying engravings illustrate the two representative genera of the rollers, the 

 European species, Coracias garrula, and the Indian, Eiirystomus orientalis. A cut 

 can only do slight justice to the former's beautiful colors. The general color is a light 

 bluish green, inclining to verditer, the mantle light cinnamon brown, the wings and 

 rump adorned with beautiful azure blue. The name 'roller' is derived from its pecu- 



