466 MOMOTIDZ. 
at a distance from the surface, varying with the depth of the barranco or bank in 
which it is situated. The size of the orifice is sufficient to allow the bare arm to be 
introduced, the shape being round and regular for three or at most for eight feet, where 
the shaft terminates in a circular chamber about eight inches in diameter and five 
inches high. In this chamber the eggs, usually four in number, are deposited on the 
bare soil. The banks of the river which winds through the plain of San Gerénimo are 
full of excavations made by this bird—that is to say, in such places where the soil is 
light and the bank chops down perpendicularly. It is a simple matter to hit upon 
those that are inhabited, as the entrance to the abandoned ones will be found perfectly 
smooth, whereas the mouth of those which contain eggs or young is ploughed up in 
two parallel furrows made by the old bird when passing in and out. The ‘ Torovoz’ 
is exceedingly tame, and, when startled from its nest, will, perched upon a bough a few 
yards distant, watch the demolition of its habitation with a degree of attention and 
fancied security more easily imagined than described.” 
The eggs are glossy white, and measure 1:0 x 0°8 inch. 
Dr. Gaumer was also much interested in Humomota superciliaris, and of it he 
writes 19 :—** During my residence of nearly four months in the city of Temax, near the 
north coast of Yucatan, about twenty of these birds lived in a well from which I used 
to draw water every day. The well was almost forty feet deep, had been cut through 
a porous shell-limestone, and its walls contained many cavities, into which a man could 
crawl many feet, but was obliged to back out. Within these cavities the Motmots 
lived, and oftentimes very poisonous little reptiles called ‘cauchz’ by the natives. 
Risking the poisonous serpents, I have frequently gone many yards into these caverns 
to investigate the home of the Motmots and their work therein, and I have always come 
out feeling well repaid for all the danger, having invariably seen something new and 
interesting. At one time I have found only the nest, with four or six roundish, white 
eggs, with the shell so thin and transparent that the yolk was plainly visible; at 
another I have found the young birds in almost every stage of development—those 
with the tail-feathers just starting growth being always the most interesting. The 
feathers all seem to grow alike to a certain point, except the middle ones, which are 
always a little broader towards the end, then all cease to grow except the two middle 
ones, which soon pass the others by about an inch and a half. Up to this point the 
webs of these two feathers are just the same throughout, except the subterminal 
portion, which is much narrower. Thus far no mutilation has taken place, but as 
soon as these feathers exceed the others a little more the webs begin to disappear, and 
the outer web of each feather is taken off first. This, however, is not always the case, 
as the inner webs sometimes go first. In a very few cases have I ever seen a web 
trimmed further up than just to the ends of the other tail-feathers; and just as these 
pass the shorter ones, so are they trimmed until their growth ceases. 
“T have never seen the bird arrange its feathers, and especially not its tail, when 
above ground, though I have seen them work for a long time with the bill arranging 
