

ROLLER. 213 



tinent the Roller is said to be frequently found in the 

 thickest and most secluded parts of the forests of Ger- 

 many ; some of its habits, however, are but imperfectly 

 known ; it is said to be noisy and restless, laying four eggs 

 in the hollow of a tree, preferring the birch tree to any 

 other, from which circumstance one of its German names 

 is Birck-heber, or the Birch Jay. The eggs are of a de- 

 licately smooth and shining white ; in shape a very short 

 oval, measuring one inch five lines in length, by one inch 

 one line in breadth. The food of the Roller consists of 

 worms, slugs, insects in their various stages, and berries. 



Specimens of the Roller have been killed in two or three 

 instances in Cornwall ; and three examples are said to have 

 been met with in Ireland. This bird has been obtained 

 more frequently in our eastern and north-eastern counties. 

 One was killed at Oakington, in Cambridgeshire, in October 

 1835. Six examples are recorded to have been killed in 

 Suffolk and Norfolk, the most recent of which occurred in 

 1838. Three or four specimens have been killed in York- 

 shire, the last of which happened at Scarborough in 1833. 

 Mr. Backhouse at Newcastle has a specimen in his col- 

 lection killed in that vicinity, and another is recorded to 

 have been shot at North Shields. Mr. Selby mentions that 

 he had examined one that was found dead in the planta- 

 tions of Earl Grey in Northumberland ; and the bird 

 figured from by Mr. Selby, in illustration of his own work, 

 was killed at Dunkeld in Perthshire. M'Pherson Grant, 

 Esq., of Edinburgh, sent me notice of a specimen obtained 

 in the eastern part of Scotland ; Sir William Jardine pos- 

 sesses one that was killed in Orkney ; and Mr. Bullock had 

 in his Museum in London a specimen also killed in Orkney. 

 Miiller includes the Roller in his Catalogue of the Birds of 

 Denmark, and Pennant mentions having received a speci- 



