92 - THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



ing Jackass {Daccdo gigas). As a matter of iact, our 

 ■present friend is more kingfisher than jay, this poverty 

 of vocabulary being one of the points in which the 

 relationship comes out ; real jays having a remarkable 

 flexibility of voice, though their ordinary remarks 

 are not much more musical than those of the Roller 

 dfamily, to which the Indian Blue-jay really belongs. 

 Rollers also agree with kingfishers and differ from 

 jays in several easily noticeable points of habit, to 

 say nothing of more recondite anatomical distinctions. 

 Thus, they extend their feet behind when flying, 

 instead of drawing them up to the breast hke the crow 

 tribe ; they bolt their food whole, never tearing it 

 with bill and foot hke the real jay ; they are practi- 

 -caUy pure animal feeders, and do not lay up stores 

 against a time of scarcity, unhke the omnivorous and, 

 provident corvine jays ; and most important of all, 

 they nest in holes and lay white eggs. It is this 

 ■common confusion between two groups of birds very 

 well known in their respective habitats that makes 

 it excusable to include in this series a bird which is 

 not common in Calcutta by any means. In fact I was 

 personally acquainted with only one wild specimen, 

 who was generally to be seen on one of the 

 furlong posts of the race-course, just opposite the 

 jail. Hereabouts he spent most of his time, for 

 Rollers, again unlike the birds whose name they 



