1880.] MR. R.TRIMEN ON A NEW ROLLER. 31 



me to select for the museum a small series of the rarer species 

 represented; and amongst these is a single specimen of a Roller 

 which appears to be very distinct from any of the described species. 

 I give the following description of this interesting new form, and 

 will append to it the notes on the bird which have been kindly 

 furnished to me by the discoverer. 



CORACIAS SPATULATUS, Sp. UOV. 



(S . Forehead and superciUary stripe rather broadly white ; top of 

 head, neck, and back dull pale greyish-green mixed with cinnamon- 

 brown, the latter colour predominating on the scapulars and lower 

 part of the back ; rump and upper tail-coverts ultramarine-blue, the 

 coverts richer and deeper in colour ; chin and a spot at base of 

 lower mandible whitish; throat, breast, belly, thighs, and under 

 wing- and tail-coverts pale bright verditer-blue, varied on the lower 

 throat and breast by lilacine cinnamon-brown webs, leaving the shaft- 

 stripes of the blue ; cheeks and ear-coverts mixed lilac and verditer- 

 blue ; sides of neck coloured like the back ; sides of breast dull 

 sandy-brownish with bluish-white shaft-stripes ; upper wing-coverts 

 ultramarine, except a short central band of cinnamon-brown lesser 

 coverts, which is edged on both sides by a few ferruginous-violaceous 

 feathers ; primaries black on inner webs, ultramarine-blue on outer 

 webs, their basal portion on both webs (but only on the inner web 

 of the first primary) pale bright verditer-blue ; secondaries coloured 

 like the primaries, except the last three, which are cinnamon-brown. 

 Tail forked, the feathers increasing in length from the two middle 

 ones, which are the shortest ; the two outermost feathers are pro- 

 longed (their inner web being abruptly much narrowed) 2^ inches 

 beyond the next feathers, and their extremity is rather broadly 

 spatulated by the gradual widening of the inner and abrupt widening 

 of the outer web ; these spatulate feathers are light verditer-blue 

 as far as their sudden narrowing, and thence wholly black (including 

 the terminal expansion) ; the next feather on each side is verditer- 

 blue, broadly tipped with blue-glossed black, which extends a good 

 way along the inner web ; the next is similarly coloured, but the 

 dark portion extends much further towards the base ; the following 

 feather is dark-blue throughout, except that its base and a very thin 

 edging of its outer web are verditer-blue ; and the two middle 

 feathers are wholly black except for a shght gloss of blue on 

 each side of the shaft ; on the underside of the tail the colouring 

 is paler, and the dark parts of the feathers are shot with bluish- 

 green. " Bill black ; feet greenish -yellow ; iris yellowish-brown " 

 (B. F. Bradshaw), 



Total length in inches (including long tail-feathers) 15 J ; length 

 of culmen l^, of folded wing &\, of central tail-feathers ^, of 

 outermost tail-feathers 8^. 



This fine Roller is in some respects intermediate between its two 

 nearest allies, C. caudatus, L., and G. abyssinicus, Bodd., but is at 

 once distinguished from them both by the spatulate form of the 

 elongated outermost tail-feathers. Apart from this pecuHar character, 



