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COEACIAS INDICA. 
Nidification . — In Ceylon the Roller breeds from January until J une, chiefly rearing its young about 
March. It nests in holes in trees, one which Mr. Parker found being situated in a palm-tree, and con- 
tained 3 white eggs, much resembling those of Halcyon smyrnensis. Air. Hume writes: ‘ lhey build in 
hollow trees, in old walls, in roofs, or under the eaves of bungalows ; they sometimes make a good deal of a 
nest of feathers, grass, &c., especially when the site they choose is not well closed in ; but w'lien they build 
in a small-mouthed hole there is usually a very scanty lining. I have found the nest in a large niche in an 
old wall, in which the birds had contracted the entrance with masses of torn vegetable fibre and old rags ; but 
this is quite exceptional ; and, again, I have taken the eggs from a hole in a Siris-tree, in which there was 
not the slightest lining beyond a few fragments of decayed wood. I have never found more than five eggs 
in any nest, and four I take to be the normal number .... The eggs are very broad ovals, in some instances 
almost spherical and like those of the Bee-eater’s ; they are of the purest china- white and highly glossy. The 
average of a large series of measurements is l - 3 by'l - 06 inch.” 
Genus EURYSTOMUS. 
Bill very broad at the gape, shorter than the last, much curved, abruptly so at the tip. 
Nostrils oblique and narrow; rictal bristles absent. Wings longer than in the last genus; 
2nd quill the longest, the 1st slightly shorter. Feet differing from those of Coracias by having 
the outer toe slightly joined at the base to the middle one. 
