Roller.
Coradas gárrula, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 32.
Galgulus, Briss. Orn., tom. ii. p. 64, pl. v. fig. 2.
_______ garrulus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxix. p. 428.
Coradas germánicos, Brehm, Vog. DeutschI., tom. i. p. 158.
----------planiceps, Brehm, ibid., p. 159.
----------garrulus, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil ii. p. 117.
A l th o u g h the avifauna of the British Wands is generally destitute o f the gorgeous hues which distinguish the
birds o f the tropics, still some three or four species conspicuous for the beauty of their plumage either reside
with or pay as occasional visits. The Holler is one of them I and but few of the birds of the torrid zone are
more gaily attired, or more striking in appearance. That the clear blue skies and the pnre atmosphere of
the European continent are more in harmony with the tints which adorn this bird than the humid, uncertain,
and foggy climate of onr islands cannot be denied; and it is in the countries across the Straits that it is
most frequently fonnd; still we have been, and probably ever shall be, favoured with its occasional visits,
the recorded instances of which, from the Land’s End to the northernmost part of Scotland, are already very
numerous. Nor has Ireland been unvisited by this line b ird ; for Thompson informs ns that the late “ Mr. R.
Ball, when walking tlirongh the demesne a t Carton, the seat of the Duke of Leinster, in the middle of September
1831, had his attention attracted by a bird pursued by a great number of Rooks, which, instead of
flying off to avoid, continued for a considerable time to dash into the midst of them, apparently for the sake
only of annoyance. From the size, brilliant plumage, and singular flight of this bird, my friend was satisfied
that it was a Roller.” Thompson was told of another being shot in the county of Sligo, and a third in the
south of Ireland ; but adds, | as yet no example of the bird unquestionably killed in this island has to a c knowledge
come under the Inspection of the naturalist." In Mr. Rudd’s ‘ L ist of Cornish Birds ’ it is stated
that a specimen had been seen near the Laud’s End, and that a female shot a t St. Levan ,s in his own
collection: I might continue to cite instances of its capture from this end of England to the Orkneys, were
it worth while to do s o ; but such notices may be foundiflSmany, if not all, the works treating on our native
birds, from Bewick to Macgillivray. As recently as the months of May and June 1805 I received thrim notes
giving me accounts of its appearance, one in Devonshire, another in Essex, and a third m Duuifnesshire.
The first Mr. Gatcombe states, was killed by a farmer’s hoy on Spriddlescou.be Farm, near Plymouth, the
property of J . H. Eccles, E s q .; on dissection this proved to be a male, and its stomach contmned the remains
of beetles and the skins of several long whitish grubs or caterpillars ; a female was seen ,n its company but
was not obtained. The Essex bird, Mr. Travis of Saffron Walden informed me, was shot on the 17th ot
May, by the gamekeeper of G. Sanders, Esq., of Little ChesterforJ P a rk ; this was a male bird, and just
before It was shot had been sucking an egg. The bird observed in Dumfriesshire, I learn by a note from
Sir William Jardlne, was seen during the previous November by the keeper of Mr.Yonstonn, of Torther-
wold flying about a thorny hedge ; it could not be approached within shooting-distance; but its remains were
afterwards found, and the wings and tail sent to Sir William. This poor straggler from a foreign land was
evidently bewildered, and should have been in a more southern climate at that period ; for be it known that
the bird is strictly migratory io all parts of Europe, and is only found there m summer, as in autumn it
crosses the Mediterranean for the more congenial climate of Africa, where insect food .s abundant, and a
genial sun reigns, under which it may preen its beautiful feathers.
Mr Stevenson, after enumerating the numerous instances of the occurrence of the Roller in his county,
r em a rk s - - “ The earliest record, however, is contained in the following remarkable note by Sir Thomas
Browne,'made ju st two hundred years a g o -.- •O n the 14th of May, 1664, a very rare bud was sent me
killed at Crostwich, which seemed to be some kind of Jay.’ After giving a description which proves that
the bird was a Roller, Sir T. Browne assigns to it the name of Gamilm Argentomtemu.
During the summer months the Roller is fonnd in many parts of Spam, Italy, Germany, and Turkey, to
the eastward of which country it proceeds as far as Afghanistan and Cashmere; but I have „0. yet seen
specimens from India proper, though Mr. Jerdon states that it is now and then fonnd in its north-western
1 ,he wooded hills that skirt the elevated plains of the Eastern Atlas,” says Mr. Salvia, 1 the Roller
ma, not unfrequently be met with. In these districts it breeds in the month of May, choosing for the
position o f its nest a hollow in a tree, and usually preferring one that has a side entrance, n gg