284 COEACIAS INDICA. 



Nidifi cation. — In Ceylon the Roller breeds from January until June, cliiefly rearing its young about 

 March. It nests in holes in trees, one which Mr. Parker found being situated in a palm-tree, and con- 

 tained 3 white eggs, much resembling those of Halcyon smyrnensis. Mr. Hume writes: — "They build in 

 hollow trees, in old walls, in roofs, or under the eaves of bungalows ; they sometimes make a good deal of a 

 nest of feathers, grass, &c, especially when the site they choose is not well closed in; but when they build 

 in a small-mouthed hole there is usually a very scanty lining. I have found the nest in a large niche in an 

 old wall, in which the birds had contracted the entrance with masses of torn vegetable fibre and old rags ; but 

 this is quite exceptional; and, again, I have taken the eggs from a hole in a Siris-tree, in which there was 

 not the slightest lining beyond a few fragments of decayed wood. I have never found more than five eggs 

 in any nest, and four I take to be the normal number .... The eggs are very broad ovals, in some instances 

 almost spherical and like those of the Bee-eater's ; they are of the purest china- white and highly glossy. The 

 average of a large series of measurements is T3 by TOG inch." 



Genus EUBY/STOMUS. 

 Bill very broad at the gape, shorter than the last, much curved, abruptly so at the tip. 

 Nostrils oblique and narrow ; rictal bristles absent. Wings longer than in the last genus ; 

 2nd quill the longest, the 1st slightly shorter. Feet differing from those of Coracias by having 

 the outer toe slightly joined at the base to the middle one. 



