151 



bowrie pole, or some leafless tree, whence it can see well all round ; also old buildings, a hay- 

 stack, or other elevated spot ; sometimes a low bush, or a heap of earth, or of stones. When 

 seated it puffs out the feathers of its head and neck. I have, on several occasions, seen one 

 pursue an insect in the air for some distance ; and when the winged termites issue from their 

 nest after rain, the Roller, like almost every other bird, catches them on the wing. It flies in 

 general with a slow, but continued, flapping of its wings, not unlike the Crow, though more 

 buoyant ; but it has the habit of occasionally making sudden darts in the air in all directions. 

 Its food is chiefly large insects, grasshoppers, crickets, Mantidoe, and even beetles ; occasionally 

 a small fieldmouse or shrew. It is often caught by a contrivance called the chow-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 fieldmouse (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 Holler, 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, such as the King-Crows (Dicrnri), 

 common Shrikes, some Thrushes, Flycatchers, and even the large Kingfishers (Halcyon). 



" The Roller has a very harsh grating cry or scream, which it always utters when disturbed, 

 and often at other times also. Mr. Blyth states that in spring the male has a pleasing dissyllabic 

 cry, repeated at intervals : this I cannot say I have heard. As previously mentioned, it is often 

 selected as the quarry for the Turumti Falcon (Falco chicquera) ; and its extraordinary evolutions 

 to escape the Hawk and its harsh cries are noticed under the description of that Falcon." 

 Colonel Irby states that it performs the same aerial antics as Coracias garrula, but is much 

 more noisy, and very annoying during the breeding-season. 



Like the common Roller, the Indian Roller nests in holes of trees, nesting in Southern 

 India, according to Mr. Morgan, in March, and in Oudh and Kumaon, according to Colonel Irby, 

 in May and June ; and the latter gentleman says that it makes its nest in holes in the thatch of 

 bungalows as well as in holes in trees. The number of eggs appears to vary from two to four, or 

 sometimes five. I am indebted to Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan for several eggs obtained by him in 

 Southern India, which are glossy white, and very closely resemble the eggs of Coracias garrulus, 

 but, if any thing, run a trifle less in average size. Mr. A. O. Hume writes (Nests and Eggs of 

 Ind. Birds, p. 104) that these birds " build in holes in 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 

 where the site they choose is not well closed in ; but where they build in a small-mouthed hole 

 there is usually a very scanty lining. I have found a nest in a large niche in an old wall in which 

 the birds had contracted the entrance with masses of tow, 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 smallest 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 specimen figured is an adult male from Southern India in my own collection. 



4b 



