COEACIAS. 55 



stealthily than usual, I heard the distinct flap of a wing just over 

 my head, and the next moment there was the usual muffled call, 

 and the bird was sitting on its perch. The next morning I re- 

 turned in more hopeful spirits and entered the tops with my eye 

 fixed on the tree under which I was standing, when the bird flapped 

 its wing : in a moment out from a hole flew Mrs. Eoller straight to 

 the usual perch, and gave her call. The hole contained three eggs, 

 and was, 1 should say, the same hole in whicli the year before a 

 pair of Athene brama had their nest." 



Eeferring to Eajpootana in general, Lieut. H. E. Barnes writes : — 

 " The Indian Eoller or Blue Jay breeds during April and May in 

 holes in trees, old walls, or under the eaves of houses. A little 

 grass and a few feathers suffice for a nest." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say : — 

 " Common, but does not breed." And the former gentleman informs 

 us that this Eoller breeds in the Satpuras, Akrani, Pimpalnir, and 

 Nandurbar jungles in March and April." 



Mr. Gr. Vidal, writing from the South Konltan, says : — " Tolerably 

 common inland in well-wooded country, but very much less so 

 near the coast. Breeds in March." 



Mr. Ehodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — • 

 " The Indian Eoller breeds in March in holes of trees. The tam- 

 arind and banyan are generally chosen for this purpose. The eggs 

 are usually two in number and of a pure and glossy white. There 

 is no nest." 



Mr. 0. J. W. Taylor writes from Mysore ; — " After the burning 

 of a jungle I noticed a single bird flying round and round a par- 

 tially burnt tree. On approacliing I noticed that the tree had a 

 number of holes in it, so I got up, and at the top of an arm that 

 had broken off short I found the dead body of a female resting on 

 two eggs. She must have either been too frightened at the im- 

 mense volumes of fire and smoke that rolled round her to escape, 

 or, perhaps, ' faithful to the last,' had voluntarily perished on her 

 eggs." 



Colonel Legge says ; — "In Ceylon the Eoller breeds from Jan- 

 uary until June, chiefly rearing its young about March." 



Mr. J. E. Cripps remarks of this Eoller at Furreedpore in Eastern 

 Bengal : — " Common, and a permanent resident. On the 3rd March 

 1878, I found four fresh pure white eggs of this species. Just at 

 the corner of a ryot's house stood an old date-tree about 20 feet 

 high, whose top had fallen off and the heart of the tree had rotted 

 away for about a foot in depth ; in the hole thus made the birds 

 had laid their eggs without forming any lining. I have frequently 

 noticed this bird at the hottest time of the day descend to the 

 ground and sit with outstretched wings in the sun, and remain so 

 for some time." 



The eggs are a very broad oval, in some instances almost spherical 

 and, like those of the Bee-eaters, they are of the purest china-white 

 and highly glossy. In appearance the eggs are precisely similar 



