366 
MEROPIDvE. 
I exhibited this bird and Mr. Baths for the purpose of showing their 
specific identity.* 
It was considered desirable to look as critically as possible to 
these birds, on account of the singular fact of their appearance in 
this hemisphere. Some ornithologists can hardly believe that they 
crossed the Atlantic. Temminck conjectures that this cuckoo 
must breed in the north of Europe, whence the individuals migrated 
to the British Islands. But our knowledge of their occurrence 
here only in the more western parts (Ireland, Wales, and 
Cornwall), in addition to the fact, that at the very period of their 
being met with, the species, according to Wilson and Audubon, 
is in course of migration in the western hemisphere, seems to 
me presumptive evidence of their having really crossed the ocean. 
Audubon has seen this bird in summer so far north as Labrador. 
It winters in temperate climates. 
THE ROLLER. 
Coracias garrula, Linn. 
Appears, on the following testimony, to have visited 
this island. 
Mr. R. Ball, when walking through the demesne at Carton, the 
seat of the Duke of Leinster, in the middle of September, 1831, 
had his attention attracted by a bird, pursued by a great number 
of rooks. Instead of flying off to avoid them, it continued 
for a considerable time (so long as he remained) to dash into the 
midst of them, apparently for the sake only of annoyance. 
Erom the size, brilliant plumage, and singular flight of this bird, 
my friend was satisfied of its being a roller. Mr. Walker of 
Granby Row, Dublin, states that one of these birds, shot in the 
county of Sligo some years ago, was preserved for a relative of his 
who resides there. Another roller has been mentioned to me as 
obtained in the south of Ireland some years since ; but as yet, no 
example of the bird unquestionably killed in this island, has to 
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1835, p. 84. 
