114 
The Birds of Gaml'ia. 
ingly with the rich ihu'k blues of the body — also very hiindsome and 
attractive birds. 
Descrii)tion. Head, neck and breast, fawn-brown with silvery re 
flections on the crown, over the eyes and on the chin, so that in some liohts 
these parts look silvery, in others (esi)ecially when seen at a distance and 
alive) fawn coloured. The front of the throat and breast are streaked with 
silvery white. Back and mantle, olive brown ; scajjulars. darker ; rump and 
upper tail coverts, bright Prussian blue, the latter tinged with cobalt : the 
tail, which does not extend beyond the tips of the closed wings, bright cobalt 
washed with Prussian blue, the outer feathers nearly wholly dark blue and 
black ; greater wing coverts, ultramarine with a metallic gloss ; basal halves 
of primai'ies and of outer secondaries, cobalt, forming a conspicuous broad 
alar bar ; external halves, Prussian blue ; inner secondaries, olive brown 
basally, blending with the scapulars, dark blue towards their extremities ; 
below bright prussian blue ; axilliaries and under wing-coverts, cobalt, the 
latter shaded with ashy blue ; edge of wing, dai'k indigo, almost black ; 
under surface of tail, cobalt with a greenish wash ; bill, black ; feet, yellow ; 
irides, dark sienna ; length, 13 inches. 
C. naecinx. WHITE-NAPED ROLLER. 
Rangn. North-east and Equatorial Africa, Soudan, 8euegambia. 
(H.L.) 
A rather larger bird than the other two and by far the most Jay-like 
in appearance of the three, for when seen alive at a little distance its brown 
ui)per parts, blue-edged wings and whitish face markings give it (juite the 
look of that bird ; but when examined closely the upper parts are found to 
be dull olive, though they look brown — a shade too almost exactly that of a 
Jay — in certain lights, while below the colour is pinkish red streaked with 
white. In the rains it is very common, while a few remain with us through- 
out the year : it resembles its relations in habits and diet, but is not nearly 
such an acrobat on the wing as they are and much less aggressive and noisy. 
Just before the rains begin, when all the Rollers are specially excitable and 
quarrelsome, I have frequently seen one of these " Jay-like " Rollers being 
hunted about by one of the Senegal Rollers. One would have thought from 
their relative sizes that the driving would have been the other way. Their 
note too is not so raucous or quite so unpleasant as that of the others, and 
ma.y be almost exactly represented by a repetition of the syllables " oo-ah, 
oo-ah." 
The following descrii)tion is that of a female (the sexes are alike) 
shot January 4th, VM-, : 
Frontal band dirty white ; eyebrow cleai' white ; a few white feathers 
form a small nape-spot ; crown to below the white naye-spot, reddish lilac 
tinged with olive, each feather washed with olive : mantle, lower nape and 
scapulars, olive, looking brown in certain lights ; lower back, mauve ; rump 
and upper tail-coverts, light ])ur])le. The two central tail feathers, dull oily 
green, the others dull blue with green edges diminishing in extent from 
within outwards. Wing coverts, clear mauve in bend of wing gradually 
merging into the reddish lilac of the greater coverts ; coverts at carpal joint 
and edge of the wing there ultramarine ; wing-cjuills duller blue shading 
