145 



Pigeons. In a moment or two they would be followed by the whole flock, and these gambols 

 would be repeated for a dozen times or more. In about a week the immigrants dispersed ; but a 

 large number, some twenty or thirty pairs, took up their abode in the mouth of the gorge of the 

 Wady Kelt, where they began at once to excavate the bank for their nests. After this dispersal not 

 a Roller ever came back to the dom trees where they had roosted at first, though scarcely more 

 than a mile distant from the new settlement. The Wady Kelt was the only place where I met 

 with what could strictly be termed a colony ; elsewhere the Roller was distributed in pairs, but not 

 restricted to any one character of country, nor to any special breeding-places. The neighbourhood 

 of villages, especially where there were ruined churches and mosques, was sure to be enlivened 

 by its brilliant plumage and sprightly presence. It frequents the whole extent of the Ghor, 

 where the Scarabcei and other sand-beetles supply it with abundance of food; it is scattered 

 through the whole of the wooded country and forests of Galilee and Eastern Gilead, and 

 especially abounds in open plains with a few clumps of trees, like that of Gennesaret. Every- 

 where it takes its perch on some conspicuous outstanding branch, or on the top of a rock, where 

 it can see and be seen. The bare tops of the fig-trees, before they put forth their leaves, are, in 

 the cultivated terraces, a particularly favourite resort. In the barren Ghor I have often watched 

 it perched unconcernedly on a knob of gravel or marl in the plain, watching apparently for the 

 emergence of beetles from the sand. Elsewhere I have not seen it settle on the ground. Like 

 Europeans in the East, it can make itself happy without chairs and tables in the desert, but 

 prefers a comfortable easy chair when it is to be found. Its nest I have seen in ruins, in holes in 

 rocks, in burrows in steep sand-cliffs, but far more generally in hollow trees. The colony in the 

 Wady Kelt used burrows excavated by themselves ; and many a hole did they relinquish, owing 

 to the difficulty of working it. But so cunningly were the nests placed under a crumbling- 

 treacherous ledge, overhanging a chasm of perhaps one or two hundred feet, that we were 

 completely foiled in our siege. We obtained a nest of six eggs, quite fresh, in a hollow tree 

 in Bashan, near Gadara, on the 6th of May. It is noticed by Russell among the birds of 

 Aleppo." 



In winter the present species visits South Africa, and has even occurred in Madagascar. 

 From Natal it has been more than once sent ; and the late Mr. Andersson obtained specimens in 

 Damaraland. M. Jules Verreaux has received it from Senegal; Weiss obtained it in the Island 

 of St. Thomas, and Keulemans in Princes' Island. The latter gentleman has sent us the 

 following note : — 



" When in Princes' Island I shot two specimens of the common Roller. They were very shy 

 and difficult to procure. The first I killed proved to be a female, and had the legs dark sandy 

 colour, the iris deep hazel, and the beak dark horn-colour, the inside of the mouth being yellow. 

 Shortly after, I shot another, which, from its brilliant plumage, was probably the male of the 

 former specimen ; but it fell in such dense jungle that I was unable to find it. I may add that I 

 have once myself shot the Roller in Holland, and during the winter of 1861 there were five 

 individuals killed near Rotterdam, and one was caught in a snare intended for a Thrush. It 

 sometimes occurs, but is altogether a rare visitor to Holland." 



The trivial name Roller is doubtless derived from the curious aerial evolutions in which this 

 species indulges, and which are so well described by Naumann, whose notes we translate below, 



