MOMOTUS. 457 
district (F. Blancaneaur); Guatemaua (Velasquez *®, Skinner ®, Constancia* \*), 
Pie de la Cuesta in San Marcos (W. B. Richardson), Retalhuleu (0. 8. & F. D. G., 
W. B. Richardson), Toliman (W. B. R.), Savana Grande, Alotenango, Duefas, San 
Geronimo, Coban, Lanquin, Choctum, Chisec (0. 8S. & F. D. G.); SaLvapor, San 
Miguel (W. B. Richardson); Honpuras, San Pedro (G. M. Whitely®), Truxillo ™, 
Segovia River 2° (Townsend) ; Nicaragua, Realejo (A. Lesson 1), Chinandega (W. B. 
Richardson), Sucuya (Nutting **), Chontales (Belé™); Costa Rica (Hoffmann, 
v. Frantzius), San José (v. Frantzius °, Carmiol °, Boucard ?!, Nutting *3, Cherrie*®), 
San Carlos, Dota Mts., Grecia (Carmiol}%), Alajuela, Santa Ana, Las rojas, 
Cartago, Naranjo de Cartago (Zeledon 8), La Palma (Nutting 2); Panama, David 
(Bridges*, Hicks‘), Cordillera de Tolé 2, Chitra '*, Mina de Chorcha 13, Bugaba }%, 
Volcan de Chiriqui !° (Arcé). 
Momotus lessoni is the commonest species of the family in Mexico and Central 
America, having a wide range, extending from the middle of the State of Vera Cruz 
to the Pacific Ocean at Tehuantepec, to Northern Yucatan, and thence southwards 
to Costa Rica and the district of Chiriqui, where it appears to stop, and its place taken 
on the Line of the Panama Railway by the closely allied UZ. subrufescens. In the north, 
too, it is supplanted from the middle of Vera Cruz to the States of Tamaulipas and 
Nuevo Leon by WV. ceruleiceps, but in this case there is a district on the confines of the 
ranges of the two birds in which intermediate forms are far from uncommon. In 
altitude WV. lessoni also has a considerable range, for it occurs from near the sea-level 
to a height of between 3000 and 4000 feet in the mountains. Its haunts are in the 
forests, where it keeps to the undergrowth and the lower branches of the higher trees. 
The nest is made, like that of a Kingfisher, ina bank. Its shape and position is well 
described by Mr. Cherrie 2°, who, quoting Mr. Zeledon, says that the bird is common 
and resident near San José, in Costa Rica. ‘The nests are built in the ground, some 
bank, like the side of a stream, being selected. ‘The entrance tunnel extends back 
horizontally sometimes for a distance of six feet. At about half its length there is a 
sharp bend upwards for some six inches, then the course is again horizontal as far as 
the chamber occupied by the nest. The nest space is twelve or fourteen inches in 
diameter, being round, and about six inches high, with level floor and ceiling. A few 
rather coarse dry twigs are strewn over the floor. The eggs I am not acquainted with.” 
Mr. Zeledon also informed Mr. Cherrie that “if one of these nests be opened at about 
the time the young are ready to leave the nest, it is found to be one of the dirtiest, foul- 
‘smelling places that can well be imagined. The young birds occupy the centre of the 
nest, while all about them, and especially at the sides of the opening, are piles of the 
excrement mixed with the pellets, composed of the hard chitinous parts of the beetles 
and other insects composing the chief food of the ‘ Bobos’ that are ejected from the 
mouth. ‘This mass is reeking with maggots.” 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. II., Ju/y 1895. 58 
