48 
otherwise rich deep nltramarine-blue, margined with black on the inner webs; under wing-coverts 
and a narrow line along the shoulder turquoise-blue: bill and legs black; iris dark brown. Total 
length about 13 inches, culraen 1-5, wing 7*5, tail 7-2, tarsus 1T5; the outer rectrix on each side 
extending 2’3 beyond the rest. 
Adult female .—Resembles the male. 
The Blue-bellied Roller is a resident species in Western Africa, where its range appears to be 
confined to the district of Senegambia. Beaudouiii obtained it in the Bissao district and Verreaux 
records it from Casamanze; and I may add that, according to Professor Barboza du Bocage, the Lisbon 
Museum contains a specimen which is stated to have come from the Cape Verd Islands; but if 
it actually was obtained there, it must have been, an accidental straggler, probably driven out of its 
course by stress of weather, for the ornithologists who have wuitten on the natural history of 
those islands do not mention the occurrence of a Roller there, and hence it is far from improbable 
that some mistake has been made in the record of the locality whence the specimen in question was 
obtained. 
Judging from the number of these birds which have been sent from Senegambia, the present 
species is probably by no means uncommon there; but although it is nearly a century since this 
Roller was first discovered, it is somewhat remarkable that so little is on record respecting its range, 
and absolutely nothing has been published respecting its habits and nidification. In all probability 
it makes its nest, like its congeners, in the hollow of a tree and deposits white eggs. 
The specimen figured and described is from the River Gambia, and is in my own collection. 
In the preparation of the above article I have, besides the series in the British Museum, 
examined the following specimens :— 
E Mus. II. E. Eresser. 
a, ad. River Gambia {Whitely). b, ^ ad. Senegambia [Boucard). 
E Mils. H. B. Tristram. 
a. Bathurst, Gambia, 1888 {Dr. P. Rendall). 
a, ad. Upper Casamanze, Senegambia. 
E Mus. W. Bothschild. 
