388 
EUROPEAN ROLLER. 
Morea, and Temminck enumerates it among the 
Japanese birds. In Sieily and Malta it is also 
said to be frequent, and is there sold in the 
markets and poulterer’s shops. We would desire 
more information from actual observation as to 
the habits of this bird than we now possess. It 
appears to be sylvan in its places of abode, nest- 
ling in the holes of trees ; the food is chiefly 
insectivorous, and it is mostly taken on the wing; 
but at other times they are said to assemble like 
rooks in the ploughed fields, to search there for 
insects ; from all our accounts they are much 
more terrestrial in their habits than the last, and, 
according to Temminck, feed on grasshoppers, 
worms, snails, and the myriopada, most of which 
must be sought for and seized upon on the 
ground. 
We take our description from the Shetland 
specimen above alluded to. The head, neck, 
cheeks, and all the under parts verdiler blue, 
sometimes inclining to greenish, and changing 
with the light ; back and scapulars pale chest- 
nut brown ; the rump and tail coverts bluish 
purple, the centre of the feathers darkest ; the 
covers of the shoulders, from the bend of the 
wing, forming a broad line, are of a brilliant tint, 
in some lights of deep auricular purple, in others 
of the blue of smalt, shading on the lower 
side into ultramarine blue, which is the tint of 
the lesser and greater coverts, and spurious quills ; 
the quills and secondaries appear black on the 
outside, at the base exhibiting a bar of pale 
