^{page 259 note 1} W. J. Gordon, Our Country's Birds, p. 89, says “its flight is like a Tumbler Pigeon's, rapid and erratic … its cry is a peculiarly dry and thirsty ‘rakker-rakker-crea’”. I once asked an Arab policeman in Basrah if he knew what the Roller said in his cry, and his answer was that Solomon, the Prophet of God, knew what it meant, thus referring to the old tradition of Solomon's knowledge of bird-language.

^{page 259 note 2} Houghton, in his article PSBA., viii, 142, identified allallu with “starling”. His quotation from Dr. Tristram is, however, to the point: “You ought to find places for the bee-eater and the roller; so common, ‘beautiful, and striking birds must have been known to the Assyrians.”