38 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
irregular than it really is. It is rather a late breeder, and in the month of May 
it had evidently not commenced to sit.” 
In India this species meets with the allied, though quite distinct, Indian 
Roller, with which, according to Blyth, it interbreeds, but this statement needs 
confirmation, although it is a well ascertained fact that the Indian and Burmese 
Rollers hybridize in a wild state. 
Lord Lilford says:—‘‘Our own principal acquaintance with this species has 
been in Spain, Turkey, and Algeria, in all of which countries it is more or less 
abundant in summer, and of course always a very conspicuous object, more 
especially from its habit of sitting on bare boughs, wooden posts, and rails and 
telegraph wires, whence it darts upon both flying and creeping insects, and 
generally returns to its perch in the same manner as our Common Spotted Fly- 
catcher and Red-backed Shrike. The Roller is generally considered and has been 
often described as a shy and wary bird, but our own experience is, that we have 
always been able to procure specimens without much difficulty, and might 
occasionally have killed many of these beautiful birds without moving from one 
spot had we been murderously inclined. This species has a curious habit of 
turning somersaults in the air, after which performance it generally darts down- 
wards with a harsh and grating chatter; these antics are generally carried on by 
the male birds while the females are sitting. The flight of the Roller is light 
and rapid, but on the ground its actions are clumsy and grotesque. The usual 
nesting-places of this bird are the cavities of hollow trees, or holes and crevices 
in banks and cliffs, but we have known of more than one nest in ruined walls; 
the materials are a few twigs and some dried grass, but when the birds choose a 
hole in a sandy bank they seldom make much if any nest. The eggs are very 
much rounded, of a pure glossy white, and generally five or six in number. 
Besides their usual insect diet, these birds occasionally take frogs and small 
reptiles; we once discovered some remains of figs in the stomach of a bird of 
this species, but imagine that they were swallowed unintentionally with some insect 
food.”” (Birds of Northamptonshire, pp. 253-4). 
The harsh chatter spoken of above is stated by Howard Saunders to be 
syllabled by the Germans as “ Racker-racker,”’ but by the Spaniards as ‘“ Carlanco- 
carlanco.” He also says that the eggs are not invariably globular, ‘ but sometimes 
elongated,” and that “incubation lasts nearly three weeks, commencing early or 
late in May, according to the country.” Both sexes appear to take part in 
incubation. 
Seebohm renders the note of this bird as “a loud harsh wrack wrack’’: he 
specially remarks upon its restlessness and its habit of using its wings in prefer- 
