ROLLERS. 



air, uttering quickly the following Tdh-rdrdh-rrdh-rrd, etc. etc., which he always 

 changes to the rack as soon as ever he begins to turn his somersault, and then 

 returns to his seat on a dead branch. This appears to represent his song. The 

 bird chooses a sandy country as its breeding-home, and aftects thin woods where 

 old oaks are scattered through, and which are adjacent to open fields and near 

 large forests, particularly of pines, making its nest in hollow oak, ash, or other 

 trees, and lining the interior with roots, straw, feathers, and hair. The male and 



ORIENTAL ROLLER (i liat. size). 



female incubate in turn for the space of not quite three weeks, and when breeding 

 they sit so close that, though at other times very shy, the}^ may be caught on 

 the nest." 

 Broad-BUied These rollers inhabit Africa, Madagascar, India, and China, 



RoUers. ranging north to Eastern Siberia and south to the Malay Archipelago 

 and Australia. They have the bill as broad as it is long at the gape. The oriental 

 roller (Eurystomus orientalis) has the tail black with a bluish base ; the head 

 blackish as well as the mantle ; the back green, and the under surface blue, with 



VOL. IV. — 6 



