head and bill were clearly indicative of a Roller. It took another 20 minutes of walking to get close to the bird and I was able to obtain a detailed description of the bird as it preened at about 100 métrés range. D e s c r i p t i o n : General impression: bird about the size of a Jay with relatively large bill and short legs. Head and breast: dull brown with a darker area from bill, through eye, narrowing behind eye and reaching almost to the back of the ear-coverts; supercilium — pale fawn; throat — a few pale streaks were visible on the dull brown at close range. Mantle and back: dull brown, darker than on head and breast. Rump: as mande and back, but with a dull buff-blue suffusion. Ear-coverts, tail and belly: buff-blue. Wings: coverts — mainly brown with dull pale-blue wash, but in flight more pale powder blue was revealed; primaries and secondaries — grey-black with pale tips noticeable at close range when perched — the extent of blue was surprisingly limited, being far less than is normally illustrated in field guides, but this was transformed when the bird flew with much blue showing in the wing; underwing-coverts — pale powder blue, but brighter than on upperwing-coverts; underside of primaries — iridescent violet-blue, very striking in flight. Bare parts: bill — heavy, dark grey/black; legs — greyish. Behaviour: the bird spent much of its time perched on top of small Elder bushes or the nearby perimeter fence from which it would drop to the ground to pick up food items. Periodically, it would fly a short distance to find a new feeding area. Occasionally, it took longer flights across the area when it was frequendy mobbed by Black-headed Gulls and once by a Short-eared Owl. Düring one of these flights I was surprised to see it perform a brief rolling display, rocking its body from side to side, accompanied by slow, exaggerated wing beats.
Mike Crewe, 2 Hill Cottages, Brighiceli IP10 OBA. Düring the 19th and early 20th centuries the Roller was a regulär visitor to the County with no fewer than 20 records from 1807 (when one was shot at Benacre) to 1927. It has since become extremely scarce with the Orfordness individuai being only the sixth record since the latter date. This bird was the first long-stayer since the one at Dketshall St Lawrence in 1980 and gave many locai birders, who had previously missed out, the opportunity of adding the species to their County lists — Ed. ARCTIC R E D P O L L Düring a routine visit to Blaxhall Heath on March 29th 1991, I noticed in a stand of Birch, a large redpoll flock comprising more than 50 birds. I decided to spend some time checking through them because initial views showed that several birds were very pale. The birds were rather flighty and stayed high in the canopy. However, eventually they settled and a few came lo wer — to a height of about two metres. Of the 50 birds, half showed characteristics of the nominate flammea race colloquially known as Mealy Redpolls, but three birds were very pale and were almost certainly Arctic Redpolls. However, on the views obtained, I could only identify with absolute confidence one individuai which offered prolonged views and sufficient time enough to take a very detailed description. The birds were watched in very good light, down to a distance of six metres, for more than 50 minutes before the flock flew off. The following notes and sketches were made whilst watching the birds: General appearance: very pale, 'frosted', with washed-out darker markings. Structure, plumage and behaviour: bulky, bull-necked and with a 'push-in' bill; distinctly larger than the Lesser Redpolls present, but roughly equal to the largest Mealies. The bird appeared to have loose feathering, raising the mantle and rump feather tracts on occasions. Head: large on stocky neck; black surround to bill; upper forehead — white, extending as a pale supercilium which broadened behind eye; fore-crown — bright scarlet; rear-crown — white streaked strongly with dark brown-black; nape and hindneck streaked more finely and consequently appeared paler than crown ; ear-coverts — almost unmarked, slighdy buffy white apart from a few streaks to their rear edge. Mantle: prominendy streaked a 'washedout' brown-black on white base colour — almost silvery in some lights. Scapulars: dark brown centres with ochreous fringes. Rump and tail: prominendy white and unmarked apart from a very faint salmon wash on the lowest one-fifth; uppertail coverts — dark centred broadly fringed white forming row of dark spots when visible; tail appeared broad (not pinched at base like the Lessers and Mealies
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