56 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



part of Hongkew now covered by houses. It was early spring, 

 before breeding had begun, and the specimen was presented 

 to the Museum. There is still wanting in many people that 

 spirit of consideration for bird-life which nature ought to 

 implant in the minds of all reasoning men, but does not. 

 Indiscriminate slaughter for business purposes, and even for 

 the mere gratification of the lust for blood, is still common, 

 to the disgrace both of human law and human nature. 



Another extremely beautiful summer visitant to these 

 districts, at times, is the oriental roller (Enrystomits orien- 

 tal'^ J Here again, I am glad to be able to repeat the boast 

 just made, for the single roller that ever fell to my gun was 

 disposed of in the same manner, and was in the Shanghai 

 Museum for years. He was 'a glorious example of what 

 Nature can accomplish with changes rung mainly on one 

 colour. In his case it was blue. I thought when I picked him 

 up that I had never seen anything quite so perfect, quite so 

 chaste, or quite so wonderful in arrangement. He was the 

 first I had ever seen, and as at no time had he been nearer to 

 me than the topmost branches of a tall tree, I had no idea of 

 the miracle of beauty he was to prove to be. His head and 

 mantle, as well as his tail, were of a rich dark blue, his back 

 was more of green than blue perhaps, especially in some 

 lights, purplish blue marked his throat, and a lighter blue the 

 rest of his under parts. He was nearly afoot long outstretched. 



The rollers get their name from a peculiarity in their 

 flight. Ordinarily, this is something like that of a pigeon, but 

 they seem to overbalance at times, and then recover them- 

 selves in a curiously interesting manner. In shape they have 

 nothing much to boast of. Their head is somewhat massive 

 in order to be able to carry the curiously wide opening beak, 

 which has the characteristics of a hawfinch added to a curved 

 tip almost raptorial in style, and a transverse width across 

 the gape as great as total length. This is to be gathered from 

 the name in the Latin, etirystoiniis, which means "wide- 

 mouthed." Insect prey, taken usually on the wing, forms the 

 mainstay of the roller's food. I am inclined to think that 

 rollers in this neighbourhood are not very common. But 

 farther south and in Annam, the Malay Peninsula, and the 

 Indian Archipelago, they form a group of strikingly beautiful 

 birds. In voice they are possessed of nothing more musical 

 than a few monosyallabic sounds rapidly repeated. 



In treating of tropical birds the observer cannot fail to 

 be struck with two characteristic traits, the frequently 

 astonishing beauty of the plumage, and the no less extra- 

 ordinary lack of song. Why tropical birds should be beautiful, 

 one may hazard a guess, but why they should be tuneless, is 

 a mystery. There is nothing antagonistic in tropical plumage 



