138 ROLLERS 



species is black underneath, with green and purple metallic 

 reflections on head, back and wings. 



Among the most beautiful birds in Madagascar are several 

 species of the rollers (Coraciadoe), so called from their peculiar 

 habit of flight. The five species found here live mostly on the 

 ground and come out chiefly at dusk. The Vorondreo, or 

 Kirombo roller, plays a great part in the chants and religious 

 recitations and folk-tales of the Malagasy. These birds live 

 chiefly on grasshoppers, but they also devour chameleons and 

 lizards. When they cry they puff out the throat, so that this 

 portion of the body has the appearance of a pendent bag. The 

 colouring of this species is perhaps the " quietest " of the five, 

 having a good deal of slaty-grey on head and breast. But both 

 it and its companions have shades of " shot " colour, purple and 

 green, or red and green, as looked at in different lights. The 

 others exhibit larger masses of bright colour ; the violet roller 

 having, as its name denotes, a good deal of violet or purple 

 tinting. Four of them are rather large birds, but the scaly 

 ground roller is small, with a curious collar of black and white 

 feathers, reminding one of the strange neck and throat ap- 

 pendages of some of the paradise birds. 



Other birds we saw and heard that day were the Raildvy, a 

 species of shrike, with long forked tail ; the Boloky, or grey 

 parrot, with a long repeated whistle, as if going up the gamut ; 

 the Vorondreo, one of the rollers, with its prolonged whistle 

 ending in a sudden drop ; the Paretika, one of the warblers, 

 with a creaky little short note, something like a child's rattle ; 

 together with these sounds was the kow-kow of the Kankdfotra 

 cuckoo, the varied mellow notes of the Toloho cuckoo, the 

 cooing sound of the Fdny, or wood-pigeon, and also the call of 

 one of the hawks. 



*Mr Baron was for thirty-five years a missionary of the 

 L.M.S. A good writer, an eloquent speaker, and an earnest 

 missionary, he was also a very able botanist and an accom- 

 plished geologist, and at the time of his lamented death, in 1907, 

 he probably knew more about both these sciences, as regards 

 Madagascar, than any other European. On account of his 

 researches, and the large collections he made, he was elected 

 a Fellow of both the Linnaean and the Geological Societies, 

 honours never conferred except for substantial scientific work. 



