OCR Text |
Show 548 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON THE [June 17, like back; centre tail-feathers green, the remainder silvery blue, with a purplish-blue base and a band of the same colour at the tip ; chin and base of cheeks white ; sides of face, throat, and breast lilac-brown, purplish on the throat, which is streaked with white; remainder of under surface light blue. " Bill blackish brown, paler at base of lower mandible ; inside of mouth pale greenish yellow ; feet brownish yellow ; eyelid and naked skin round the eye pale gamboge ; iris greyish brown " (E. A. Butler). Length about 12 inches, tail 5, wing 7*3, tarsus 0*95, bill from gape 1-7. The specimens from Southern India are rather darker and more richly coloured than the birds of the North-western plains, those from the N.W. Provinces being decidedly lighter in colour. Distribution. Nearly the whole of India and Ceylon, not ascending the hills. It extends from Asia Minor to Persia, Northern Arabia, and Baluchistan, and thence over tbe greater part of the plains of India. Its range extends to the Nepal Valley, where Dr. Scully procured authentic specimens, and here it meets with C. affinis from Assam, and intermediate specimens occur in which the strain of C. indica predominates. Its eastern limit appears to be Dacca and the vicinity of Calcutta, where intermediates between it and C. affinis again occur rather frequently. Over Central and Southern India it is likewise generally spread, but it is apparently not nearly so plentiful as in Upper India; and in the Deccan it is migratory, retiring to the better-wooded tracts to breed, according to Colonel Butler and the Rev. S. B. Fairbank. Habits, Sfc. Breeds from the end of March right into July according to Hume, who also states that in Upper India the great majority of the birds lay in April and June. The Indian Roller, like its congeners, nests in holes, sometimes making a considerable nest of feathers, grass, &c. The situation chosen is the hole of a tree or old walls, or in roofs and under the eaves of bungalows. The eggs are white, and measure from about 1*3 inch in length by about 1*06 inch in breadth. CORACIAS AFFINIS. The Burmese Roller. Coracias affinis, McClell. P. Z. S. 1839, p. 164 ; Blyth, Cat. p. 51 (1849); Horsf. & M. Cat. ii. p. 574 (1856); Jerd. B. L i. p. 217 (1862); Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xxxix. p. 95 (1873); Blyth & Wald. B. Burm. p. 72 (1875); H u m e & Davis. Str. F. vi. p. 72 (1878); Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 581(1878); Hume, Cat. no. 124; Oates, B. B. ii. p. 69 (1883); Salvad. Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) iv. p. 589 (1887); Hume, S. F. xi. p. 48 (1888). Coloration. Upper surface dingy olive-brown; lower back and rump purplish blue, but the upper tail-coverts silvery cobalt; wings and tail as in C. indica, excepting that there is no blue terminal band to the latter, the outer feather alone having a black spot at the end ; crown of head greenish blue, with a lighter and more verditer-blue shade on the forehead and eyebrow ; sides of face and throat and breast brown, becoming paler on the latter; chin |