]03 
BLUE-BODIED ROLLER. 
Coracias cyanoyaster, Cuvier. 
PLATE XIII. 
Head, neck, and breast hooded with greenish-fawn colour ; 
. body, above and beneath, and wings, sapphire-blue, the 
latter with a light green band ; scapulars black ; tail forked 
and green. 
Coracias cyanogaster, Systema Avium, No. 6, Jardine and 
Selby, III. of Om. pi. 123. 
Ip richness of colouring alone constituted beauty, 
this Roller would he the most splendid of all the 
birds of Western Africa. No effort of art can pos- 
sibly do justice to those inimitably rich lines of 
ultramarine, beryl colour, and changeable fawn, 
with which it is ornamented ; for there are no tints 
hitherto discovered, either mineral or vegetable, 
which will enable the painter to produce their suc- 
cessful imitation. 
Le Vaillant seems to be the first who made us 
acquainted with this magnificent bird, by whom it 
was described under the name of Le Rollier a ventre 
lieu , and Latinized by M. Cuvier into Coracias 
cyanogaster. Dr. Wagler has committed two 
