Swallow-tailed Indian Rollers are natives of Northeastern Africa and
Senegambia, and also the interior of the Niger district. The bird is
so called from its way of occasionally rolling or turning over in its
flight, somewhat after the fashion of a tumbler pigeon. A traveller in
describing the habits of the Roller family, says:
"On the 12th of April I reached Jericho alone, and remained there in
solitude for several days, during which time I had many opportunities
of observing the grotesque habits of the Roller. For several successive
evenings, great flocks of Rollers mustered shortly before sunset on some
dona trees near the fountain, with all the noise but without the decorum
of Rooks. After a volley of discordant screams, from the sound of which
it derives its Arabic name of "schurkrak," a few birds would start from
their perches and commence overhead a series of somersaults. In a moment
or two they would be followed by the whole flock, and these gambols
would be repeated for a dozen times or more.
"Everywhere it takes its perch on some conspicuous branch or on the top
of a rock, where it can see and be seen. The bare tops of the fig trees,
before they put forth their leaves, are in the cultivated terraces, a
particularly favorite resort. In the barren Ghor I have often watched it
perched unconcernedly on a knot of gravel or marl in the plain, watching
apparently for the emergence of beetles from the sand. Elsewhere I have
not seen it settle on the ground.
"Like Europeans in the East, it can make itself happy without chairs and
tables in the desert, but prefers a comfortable easy chair when it is to
be found. Its nest I have seen in ruins, in holes in rocks, in burrows,
in steep sand cliffs, but far more generally in hollow trees. The colony
in the Wady Kelt used burrows excavated by themselves, and many a hole
did they relinquish, owing to the difficulty of working it. So cunningly
were the nests placed under a crumbling, treacherous ledge, overhanging
a chasm of perhaps one or two hundred feet, that we were completely
foiled in our siege. We obtained a nest of six eggs, quite fresh, in
a hollow tree in Bashan, near Gadara, on the 6th of May.
"The total length of the Roller is about twelve inches. The
Swallow-tailed Indian Roller, of which we present a specimen, differs
from the Europeon Roller only in having the outer tail feathers
elongated to an extent of several inches."
[Illustration: SWALLOW-TAILED INDIAN ROLLER.]