The Burmese roller, wrote Gould, has several differences in plumage from the Indian roller (see Asia, I, pl.54). He described the throat of the Burmese roller as blue instead of reddish-brown, there was sometimes a bluish sheen on the abdomen, and there was always no dark broad band at the base of the tail. According to the naturalist, Sir Robert Schomburgk, the roller was 'dressed in blues of all shades... shading off into green and grey... The beautiful wing feathers of this bird... are exported to China for tiny fans, into which they are also manufactured in Siam.'
Richter's watercolour varies from the finished plate in some small details. There are no flowers and less leaves on the plant in the print. In the watercolour the two faint pencil lines against the left bird's back indicate a correction for compressing the body, and in the print the back of the bird is slightly shortened so that the full tail is visible.
The rollers are depicted lifesize.
T.C. Jerdon, Birds of India, 1862-64, I, p.217
R. Schomburgk, The Ibis, 1864, p.246
DISTRIBUTION: Southern Asia from eastern Arabia to India, and southeastern Asia to China south through Thailand and Indochina to central Malaya.
The birds depicted belong to the subspecies Coracias benghalensis affinis, the Burmese Roller of southeastern Asia