CORA CIAS INDICA. 283 



Returning to India we find that it is a seasonal visitant to some parts of the country, perhaps avoiding 

 the extreme temperature of the hot season. It is said to leave the Deccan about the middle of April ; and 

 Captain Butler notices that it quits the hills at Aboo during the hot season, although the singular fact is 

 testified to that it remains in the plains at that time. In the wooded and cultivated portions of Sindh, 

 Mr. Hume observes that it is common, but absent from the desert tracts ; he further remarks that it is in 

 the Terai between Darjiling and in Eastern Bengal that the two races indica and affinis first commence 

 to intermix. 



Habits. — In Ceylon the " Jay" is found in open compounds, cocoanut-groves, tobacco-fields, waste scrubby 

 land, grass -fields near the borders of tanks, and also newly cleared spaces in the forest. It perches on some 

 bare tree, fence, or other prominent object, and sallies out after insects, which it captures cleverly on the 

 wing, either returning to its original post or taking up another close by to devour its quarry. It is fond of 

 perching on cocoanut-fronds, and in the Jaffna district often selects the lofty well-whips used to draw the 

 water for irrigating the native tobacco, and presents a striking appearance with its head drawn into its 

 shoulders and its bright plumage glistening in the sun. It is generally difficult of approach, flying from 

 one feDce or stump to another before one can get within shot of it; and when fired at, if not hit, flies off, 

 mounting above the tree-tops and rolling from side to side in its course as if it had a difficulty in balancing 

 itself on the wing. However much it is alarmed it generally returns to the field from which it has been 

 chased, making a wide detour and reappearing perhaps at the opposite end from that at which it left. 

 When the ripe paddy has been cut in the fields round the village tanks the Roller is sure to be seen taking 

 his part in the harvest-making, which consists in consuming as many of the newly exposed terrestrial insects 

 as it can, and flying in the meanwhile from one haycock to the other. Grasshoppers and beetles at such times 

 form its chief diet. Its harsh cry is often uttered when it has been shot at and wounded, it being one of 

 the few birds I have ever met possessed of this singular habit. 



Its flight is performed with vigorous flappings of the wings, the points of which appear almost to meet 

 beneath its body while it turns or rolls about in that strange manner which has acquired for it its peculiar 

 name. It varies its course in the air by darting off sometimes at right angles to the original direction and then 

 almost tumbling over in rapidly descending to the ground. These extraordinary evolutions it performs to 

 some purpose when flown at by the Turumti, or Red-headed Merlin, mention of which I have already made at 

 page 112. 



Jerdon has some interesting notes on this handsome bird which I subjoin here. He writes, in his 

 ' Birds of India ' : — " It is often caught by a contrivance called the chou-gaddi. This consists of two thin 

 pieces of cane or bamboo bent down at right angles to each other to form a semicircle and tied in the centre. 

 To the middle of this the bait is tied, usually a mole-cricket, sometimes a small field-mouse (Mus lepidus) . 

 The bait is just allowed tether enough to move about in a small circle. The cane is previously smeared 

 with bird-lime, and it is placed on the ground not far from the tree where the bird is perched. On spying the 

 insect moving about down swoops the Roller, seizes the bait, and on raising its wings to start back one or 

 both are certain to be caught by the viscid bird-lime. By means of this very simple contrivance many birds 

 that descend to the ground to capture insects are taken, as the King-Crows (Dicruri), Common Shrikes, some 

 Thrushes, Flycatchers, and even large Kingfishers {Halcyon) .... 



" The Nil/cant is sacred to Siva, who assumed its form ; and at the feast of the Dasseragh, at Nagpore, 

 one or more used to be liberated by the Rajah, amidst the firing of cannon and musketry, at a grand parade 

 attended by all the officers of the station. 



" Buchanan Hamilton states that before the Durga Puja the Hindoos of Calcutta purchased one of these 

 birds, and at the time when they threw the image of Durga into the river, set the Nilkant at liberty. It is 

 considered propitious to see it on this day, and those who cannot afford to buy one discharge their matchlocks 

 to put it on the wing. The Telugu name of the Roller, signifying Milk-bird, is given because it is sirpposed 

 that when a cow gives little milk if a few of the feathers of this bird are chopped up and given along with 

 grass to the cow the quantity will greatly increase. It is one of the birds on whose movements many omens 

 depend. If it cross a traveller just after shooting it is considered a bad omen." 



The Roller is very tenacious of life, requiring a large amount of hitting before coming to earth. 



2o2 



