dead wood at the bottom afford. The Arabs used : ae ¢ softer nest than the chips 0 S 7 = Their local name is are deposited, on no frequently to catch the birds derived from one of the cries of the Mr. Tristram says, ad af no grotesque gyrations in the air chestnut-tree, and after making grotesque gyrations 1n eu, them, eggs and all, to us. at their holes, and bring ‘ ] expresses. In his notes on the bird, which it wel “ Occasionally the Roller would rise screaming from a like those of a Tumbler Pigeon, drop head- « Shrugurug, ornithology of the same country, long into the forest and out of sight. he Hoopoe, it 1s a common bird round t n it at Malta, adds that he observed it to be very abund ller’s habits, it is stated to be a shy bird, frequenting woods and On the Plain of Sharon, where the distance between reatest abundance, their beautiful green bodies ; | he shores of the Mediterranean ; Lieut. Sperling states that, like t pao : ve ant in Syria, and after mentioning that he had see and says, ‘‘In most accounts of the Ro forests; my experiences of it are exactly the reverse. s, I have seen Rollers in the g apparently waiting for delud in a day without exciting myself about them.” , sometimes in small flocks of trees is measured by mile bending the slender reeds of a swamp, ed frogs to make their appearance from the cool depths below. I could certainly have shot twenty Mr. Wright states that at Malta it ‘‘ appears annually in spring and au five or six. It is common in April or May, a few lingering till June. An instance is recorded of a pair breeding in a ruined house in an unfrequented part of the country. It is often called the Jay, or Blue Jay, by English residents and visitors.” Lord Lilford informs us “ that it arrives in Corfu in great numbers about the middle of April, but only remains for a few days. It breeds on the mainland. I found a nest in the walls of a ruined house at Delvino in May 1857. The birds had quite lost their timidity, and flew round my head chattering and screaming as I approached the nest, which I suspect was an old one of some other bird. I discovered another nest in June of the same year, in the banks of the Kataito River near the village of Mursyah. In this instance the nest was in a hole in the bank, and consisted of a few twigs carelessly put together.” Dr. Heuglin mentions that it is “ very numerous in October and November in the woody marshes on the Somali coast. Here locusts abounded, and many birds were feeding eagerly on them. Specimens were shot on the island of Deber in the Red Sea on the 29th of July.” In Savoy, where it is known by the names of Jay-Parrakeet and African Jay, on account of the mixture of blue and green colouring in its plumage, and its being known to come from that country, it appears twice a year—in the spring from the commencement of April to the middle of May, and again from the end of August to the beginning of October, when it retires to its winter quarters: at this latter season young birds are mostly seen, and adults are very rare. It generally appears one at a time, which is the reason of its being regarded as a wild bird peculiar to Africa. In the spring it is occasionally met with in couples, and in the autumn in small bands. During its spring passage a few remain among the great trees and the willows which border the lakes, ponds, rivers, and marshes; here it perches among the branches ; and if it descends to the ground, it is to visit the freshly tilled fields and meadows in search of worms, grasshoppers, crickets, snails, and small frogs. In the autumn it is more frequently found in the thick wood and the little- frequented sides of the lower mountains; it there feeds on larve, caterpillars, and various kinds of insects, pulpy fruits, and berries. Vieillot says, its cry is sonorous, and the specific name of garrula, assigned to it by Linnzeus, indicates that it is a chatterer. : It will have been pbscied ne by some persons this bird has been described as shy and distrustful, and by ee of ee and eon directly opposite; I suspect that where undisturbed the latter description arries and the former is due to the persecution to which it has been subjected consequent upon man’s desire to possess an object of so much beauty. Like the members of the genus Eurystomus, it is noisy and garrulous, particularly during the breeding- oe RO ie i ae for iinose trees which skirt open amis or great OE a oc e G Lee, and thence sallies forth to capture any passing Insect. ee a a ae ae o oa ee as e by the HUY SIBTI coe hollows Ppmemear cen of which reminds. us. of re : pare wood its three or four pure-white eggs, the hose of the Kingfi . sher, to which er acre