f 
94 
also at the base of the outer web, forming a white alar patch; secondaries washed with grass- 
green ; central tail-feathers olive-brown, the remainder deep cobalt; throat pure white, bordered by 
a broad patch of cobalt-blue, which extends from below the eye to the upper breast, where it forms a 
band across the lower throat; breast and flanks bay ; rest of the underparts creamy white: beak 
black ; legs grey; iris brown. Total length about 10 inches, culmen 1‘2, wing 4’6, tail 4’8, tarsus 1’7. 
Female .—Similar to the male, but rather duller in tinge of colour. 
Young female (Madagascar).—Eesembles the adult, but much duller in general coloration, on 
the forehead and above the eyes marked with brownish buff, the spots over the eye and ear few in 
number and pale buff, not white; throat marked with blackish, and the sides of the neck slightly 
marked with rufous buff. 
Ols .—In the specimens before me the amount of cobalt-blue on the sides of the throat and neck 
varies considerably in extent. In some, evidently old birds, it extends only on the sides, the white 
being continued right down to the breast, whereas in others it is continued right across the lower 
throat, and this is also the case in the young female which I have figured and described. I have 
therefore deemed it best to figure this extreme form, as in Messrs. Roch and Newton’s plate the form 
is figured in which the blue extends only on the sides of the throat. 
Like the other aberrant Rollers to which it is allied, the present species is confined to Madagascar, 
where it was first discovered in 1834 by Bernier, and described by Lafresnaye the same year, the type 
being in the Paris Museum. 
It inhabits the large forests on the eastern side of Madagascar, at least from Mangoro to Sambasa, 
and appears to be tolerably common. Messrs. Roch and Newton, who met with it in the forest of 
Alanamasaotra (which is, the latter gentleman remarks, the only locality from which he heard of it), 
write (1. G.) :—“ It was getting dark as we approached Alanamasaotra on our journey up, when we 
saw several of these birds run across the path ; one of them was shot by Dr. Roch. On our return 
we saw one again, but it was only in the dusk of the evening. It is singular that such a brightly 
coloured species should only appear at nightfall, as it would seem alone to do. They have a very 
peculiar manner of jerking their tails when they alight on a branch. As far as we observed, they 
always kept very near the ground, and are probably ground-feeders.” 
The Rev. J. Wills, from whom I received several specimens of this Roller, tells me that it is 
seldom seen except in the dusk of the evening, and appears to be crepuscular in its habits and essen¬ 
tially a ground-frequenting species. He tells me also that it nests in holes in the ground, but that 
he had not obtained its eggs. Grandidier also states that it nests in the ground or between the roots 
of large trees, and from this habit the belief is derived that it hibernates, for he says ‘‘ the natives 
assert that these birds hibernate during the dry season, like the Trandraka {Centetes), in holes dug in 
the ground.” He describes the egg as being “ white with a few small spots at the smaller end, and 
large for the size of the bird, measuring 37 by 27 millimetres; but according to Bartlett (P. Z. S. 1879, 
p. 770) “the eggs are creamy white, with a smooth surface, but not so highly polished as the eggs of 
Coracias gavTuliisr According to Grandidier, the Betsimisarakas call this bird, according to locality, 
Eoa-Telo, Beningaly (mother of Nectarineas), or VoronsiJcinand (rich-plumaged bird). 
