29 
and underparts are duller and paler in colour, the former being but little tinged with vinous purple. 
According to Legge the young bird has the iris brown, the grey outer portion in the adult reduced 
to a narrow ring; this latter increases with age very gradually, imparting considerable variation to 
the eye ; bill blackish brown, pale or reddish at the base beneath ; tarsus slightly tinted with oliva¬ 
ceous ; gape yellowish. 
The true home of this Eoller is, as its name implies, India, where it ranges eastward to the district 
of Calcutta, where it meets and frequently interbreeds with Coracias affinis, but is found westward 
through Persia to Asia Minor, and has even occurred as far west as Turkey, for there is in the 
Museum of the Behek College, Constantinople, a single specimen which Dr. Sclater writes (‘ Ibis,’ 1876, 
p. 63) “is stated to have been shot on the railway-line on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, between 
Haider Pacha and Ismidt. Mr. W. Pearse of Haskeui, who is engaged in obtaining specimens to 
supplement the series, told me that he received the skin of the bird when quite fresh, and that it was 
shot in company with a flock of the Common Eoller (C. garrula).” 
Mr. Danford met with it in Asia Minor, where, he says, it was once seen in the level country at 
the base of the Ala-dagh between Giaour-keui and Bereketlii. Sharpe records it from Muscat in 
Arabia, and Mr. Cumming, who sent a specimen from Pao on the Persian Gulf, says that there it is 
migratory; only two specimens were seen and shot, one on the Persian side of the river, and the other 
at Pao, an old fort only a short distance from the telegraph buildings. Dr. Sclater has examined 
specimens obtained at Bundar Abbas by the Marquis Doria in 1862, now in the Civic Museum of 
Genoa; and according to Blanford {1. c.) it “inhabits somewhat sparingly the countries of Southern 
Persia and Baluchistan, which are below the level of 3000 feet above the sea, its range in these countries 
being nearly the same as that of the date-palm. De Pilippi, on the authority of the Marchese Doria, 
gives as its habitat in Persia ‘ beyond Isfahan, in the region of the palms ’; but no palms are met with 
so far north as Isfahan, except on the edge of the salt desert north of Yegd, and I think that beyond 
(i e. south of) Shiraz would more accurately represent the range of the bird. It extends west as far 
as the neighbourhood of Bushire. Whether it is found at the extreme north end of the Persian Gulf 
or on the south-west coast of the Gulf in Arabia, I cannot say. On the few occasions on which I 
saw this Eoller in Baluchistan it was on the date-palms. It is of course non-migratory, the region 
which it inhabits being sufficiently warm to furnish a supply of insect food at all seasons.” To this 
Sir Oliver St. John adds that it is “ non-migratory, and found only in the palm-groves on the coasts 
and in the neighbouring valleys. About Daliki and Khisht both species of Eoller are abundant in 
spring and summer, the European bird spending its winter in Arabia, while C. indicus remains at 
home. In these places I shot a great many specimens in the hope of finding a hybrid, but without 
success.” 
It is found in Afghanistan, and Col. Swinhoe observed it near Sibi at Pirchorosky and in the 
lower part of the Bolan, and he was given to understand that it is sometimes found at Quetta. 
Sir O. St. John doubts if it occurs above 1500 to 2000 feet in Afghanistan. 
Capt. Wardlaw Eamsay states that it was not uncommon near the skirts of the pine-forest 
at Byan-Kheyl, and he is nearly certain that a Eoller which was found, though not common, in 
the Hariah district is referable to the present species and not to C. garrulus. According to 
Dr. Jerdon, it is “ distributed throughout the whole of India from Ceylon and Cape Comorin to 
