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out had difficulty in manipulating them. I still have a lively

remembrance of their eagerness and excitement when cherries

were tossed down, each bird seizing and rushing off with its

prize ; using the bill as a gouge, they scooped the flesh off the

sides of the fruit as cleverly and neatly as if they had been at it

all their lives. The habits of the Hoopoe, it will be seen,

strongly support my theory about the Roller ; and since the

habits of, comparatively^ such an easily watched bird as the

Hoopoe are so little known to those who write about birds, it is

hardly surprising that the latter should not be fully acquainted

with the manners and customs of the shy, timid, and wary

Roller. The whole matter teaches us the importance of supple-

menting our observations of birds in their wild state by studying

their habits in captivity, keeping them under as natural

conditions as circumstances will permit.


Most of the foregoing was written some time ago ; and I

iiiay well add a few supplementary remarks. My two Rollers

seem to have given up drinking ! Is that because they find they

do not need water or are better without it? or do the}^ disapprove

of cold water during the winter ?


Since the experience of the female, already related, the

male likewise, by an accident, found himself in a bathing dish,

and in the dish he remained as if petrified. Unlike the female,

he is not finger tame ; j^et he allowed me to take liini out of the

water, which covered his feet but little more ; and he sat on my

hand with a dazed expression in his face, as if he had been

saved, by the skin of his teeth, from some ten'ible calamity.

No wonder my two birds have given up drinking ! ! !


During the time I have had these two Rollers, small birds

(Nonpareils, Grey Singing Finches, Bearded Tits, etc.) have

often been left ilying loose with them for weeks together, but

never has either, by look or action, betrayed the slightest

inclination to devour or injure them. Next to a fledgeling, I

suppose there is nothing which will develop a latent rapacious

instinct in a bird so readily as a small ground bird, yet Quails and

lyarks have wholly failed to get a rise out of my Rollers — there is

nothing of the Jay about the Roller.


I notice in Tlie Zoologist that, last autumn, a pair of adult

birds of this species was shot near Battle in Sussex. The Editor

makes the announcement as if the slaughterer had performed

some meritorious act instead of one calling for the severest

condemnation. In connection with the female it was stated,.

" Contents of gizzard, fragments of GeotriLpcsT



