THE COMMON ROLLER. 13 



principally beetles, but caterpillars and worms, 

 and even frogs, are known to form a portion of 

 its diet, while the late M. Favier states that it 

 will even eat scorpions. 



Like the Bee-eaters and Kingfishers, Rollers 

 lay pure, glossy, white eggs, four or six in number. 

 These are placed in a hole in a tree or a rock, or 

 in a wall or building. Sometimes they excavate 

 holes in a sand bank, as Canon Tristram tells us 

 that he once met with a colony in Palestine 

 which had tunnelled their own nesting-holes. 

 The egg is figured of the natural size, the average 

 measurements of the series in the British Museum 

 being i"5 inch by i'i5 inch. 



