THE ROLLER. 39 
ence to hopping from branch to branch, a trick which he appears to ascribe to its 
very short legs and weak feet, but it must be remembered that this is a habit 
also of the Jackdaw, which I have repeatedly noticed doing the same thing, 
certainly from no lack of vigour in its legs or feet. 
Every observer of this bird in a wild state has called attention to the 
peculiarity in its flight from which it has received its name of ‘ Roller’’—a sudden 
turning over in the air after the manner of a Tumbler Pigeon. Many birds drop 
suddenly when at a great height, notably Swallows and Swifts, but very few appear 
to roll over in the air, yet it must be a pleasurable sensation. 
When on migration the Roller appears to be gregarious. Canon Tristran 
having observed large flocks of them in Palestine on the rath of April. 
It is difficult to understand why this magnificently coloured bird has not 
become a favourite with aviculturists. Being a common breeding species in North 
Germany it should not be difficult to obtain. Dr. Russ does not mention the 
genus Coracias in his ‘‘ Handbook,” yet there is no doubt that it has been kept 
in Germany. 
The Roller should be no more difficult to feed in confinement than a Shrike 
and, although Naumann states that caged birds when fed on any vegetable matter 
die from its effects, one ought to be able to keep them alive with raw meat, cock- 
roaches, frogs, newts, and perhaps mice. It is indeed related respecting one of 
the Norfolk examples of C. garru/us that it “was brought into Yarmouth by some 
sailors, having alighted on the rigging of their vessel just off the harbour; yet 
though taken alive it soon died’: but as the poor thing only had a minute 
fragment of a beetle’s leg in its stomach and was in very poor condition, it would 
have been more surprising had it survived. 
A pair of the Abyssinian Roller (C. deucocephalus) stated by the late Dr. Bree 
to have been shot near Glasgow about 1857, had probably strayed from some 
Zoological Gardens: for as this species has never been known to occur in any 
part of continental Europe, it is tolerably certain that it could not have wandered 
to the British Isles. Of course many other species which do occur on the 
Continent, may have similarly escaped from captivity. 
