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Namaqualand. Mr. Rickard tells us that he once saw a Roller apparently of this species near East 
London. It has been killed in Natal by Mr. Ayres, Mr. Mohr, and other collectors, and Captain 
Shelley recently obtained a specimen from the neighbourhood of Pinetown, but it was considered to 
be by no means common in that locality. Mr. Ayres has recently forwarded a specimen from the 
Transvaal, which he says was killed amongst some bushes about three miles from Potchefstroom in the 
month of December.” It has also been recorded from near Pretoria by Barratt, from Tati by Oates, 
from the Orange Free State by Symonds, Palatswie Pan, Bamangwato, and the Usambara Mountains 
by Shelley, the Zambesi by Serpa Pinto, and Massa in Galaland by Pischer. It is also said to have 
been obtained in Madagascar; Weiss obtained it in the island of St. Thomas, Keulemans in Princes 
Island, and it is said to be not very uncommonly met with in the Canary Islands during the seasons 
of migration. 
In habits the Roller is restless and uneasy, except during dull and wet weather, when he becomes 
heavy and mopes. It frequents thin woods and groves and also bush-covered places. It usually 
settles on the summit of a tree or on a dead branch, and is also often found perched on a telegraph 
pole or wire. Robson says that it is often found on low trees or bushes and on earth clods, where it 
will sit for some time watching for the insects on which it feeds, and he also says that he has seen 
them catch beetles on the wing. It does not hop about amongst the branches, but flies from bough 
to bough. Its flight is quick and easy and reminds one both of that of a Jackdaw and a Pigeon, but 
it has a habit of rolling or overbalancing itself on the wing like the latter bird. 
Its note, from which its name in several languages is derived, is harsh and discordant, and may 
best be compared with that of the Magpie. It may be described as a deep harsh Backer-mcJcer-racTcer- 
racTcer, which is very quickly uttered when the birds are squabbling, and with it is mingled a harsh 
Trail. When sitting quiet the note is a harsh rack and rack-rack, and also a plaintive high krdli, not 
unlike that which a young Jackdaw sometimes utters, this last being the call-note. These notes are 
often varied, and the bird is generally heard before it is seen. In fine weather the male rises in the 
air near where the female is incubating, uttering a single rack, rack-kack, until he attains a 
considerable altitude, from whence he suddenly falls, always turning a somersault, and throwing 
himself here and there in the air, uttering quickly the notes rah, rdrdh, rrhd-rrd, &c., which he 
always changes to the rack directly he begins to turn his somersault, and then returns to his seat 
on a dead branch. 
The food of the Roller consists of insects of various kinds, grasshoppers, locusts, beetles, cater¬ 
pillars, worms, &c. and small frogs, the food being picked up from off the ground and seldom 
obtained amongst the branches or the foliage of trees. As a rule, it is not a vegetable or fruit eater, 
but von der Miihle states that in Greece it devours figs in the autumn and becomes then very fat. 
The breeding-range of the Roller is extensive, extending from North Africa up to the northern 
portions of continental Europe and even Southern Sweden. Nidification takes place in April, May, 
or early in June, according to latitude. So far as my own experience goes, I have only found the 
Roller nesting in hollow trees, usually in oaks; but it varies in the choice of its nesting-place 
according to circumstances : thus Col. Irby found its nest in old walls and ruins ; Lord Lilford says 
that in Greece he found nests in an old wall and in a hole in a river-bank; and von der Miihle met 
with it breeding at Negropont under the eaves of roofs, the nest being constructed of roots and lined 
with hair. Canon Tristram in Palestine and Blanford in Persia also found it nesting in banks and 
walls. At Turbali, in Asia Minor, Dr. Kriiper on several occasions found Rollers making use of old 
Magpies’ nests which had not lost the covering roof. The nest is constructed of roots and straws 
internally lined with hair or feathers, but occasionally the eggs are deposited in a hole without any 
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