The Birds of Gambia. 
113 
sufficiently cautious and intelligent to keep at a safe distance from anyone 
with a gun in his hands. During the dry season they are comparatively 
(|uiet, but from May onwards they become noisier and and more lively, and 
indulge more frequently in their rolling tumbling feats of aerial gymnastics, 
osi)ucially at the courting season, when they are almost all day sporting 
in the air together, at one moment locked in close embrace and grappling 
one with another, the next falling like stones, soon to disengage, to rise 
again and repeat the same performance, while all the time thej- are doing 
their best to drive one wild with their harsh screaming cries. At all times 
they are rather quarrelsome and attack boldly any bird, be it Hawk or other 
murdering ruffian, which may trespass on what they consider their rights. 
At bush-fires they follow the line of the flames, snajiping up the crippled 
insects and reptiles, often from out of the very centre of the fire, and dis- 
l)uting with the Kites and Hawks for the j)ossessioii of the choicer morsels. 
At such times one often sees as many as thirty or forty together, but on 
ordinary occasions they are found in dairs or singly, but 
wherever one may be in the bush, one cannot go far without at least one 
Holler being in sight. Their chief colours are brilliant light blue, chestnut 
and black, and they have noticeably forked tails, the outer feather on each 
side being elongated and tapered. The following description is that of a 
full-plumaged adult shot November 23rd, 1905. 
Crown and nape, pale bluish green with a pale brown forehead and 
eye streak ; back and mantle, i)ale chestnut ; les.ser wing-coverts, bright 
ultramarine blue ; middle-coverts, Cambridge blue with a greenish tinge ; 
cubitals, chestnut like the back ; great coverts, clear Cambridge blue ; basal 
halves of flight feathers the same ; distal halves, ultramarine with black 
inner edges : rump, bright ultramarine ; upper tail coverts also ultramarine 
but with Cambridge blue bases and narrow tips. The two central tail 
feathers are : above, greenish grey ; the others (except the outer long ones), 
ultramarine at bases, Cambridge blue at ends, the amount of light blue 
increasing from within outwards ; the external feather on each side (3i 
inches longer than the others) is Cambridge blue with the central shaft and 
whole of the last 3i inches, black. Below : chin, pale brown ; cheeks and 
throat, greenish blue streaked with lighter : breast, abdomen and under tail 
coverts, clear Cambridge blue ; under surface of tail like the upper, but the 
light blue extends rather further ; under wing-coverts, bright Cambridge blue ; 
under surface of flights like the upper, but the two blues are not quite so 
clear in colour ; bill, black ; legs and feet, greyish olive : irides, burnt sienna ; 
length (to end of middle tail feathers), 12 inches. 
C. cuanoijaster. BLUE-BODIED ROLLER. 
Eanije. Senegambia. {H.L.) 
This, usually known here as the Brown-headed Roller, is much less 
common during the dry season than the Senegal Roller, but from May 
onwards its numbers increase, and during the rains (the breeding season) up 
to about the end of the year, I think the two species are about equally 
common. Their habits, flight and food arc the same as those of their con- 
geners, and although not possessing the exti-emely brilliant blues of the 
Senegal Roller, they are — with their pale brown heads contrasting so pleas- 
