THE BEE-EATERS. 139 



its bright effulgence when examined feather by feather, the Jacamars are by no means con- 

 spicuous birds, and at a little distance do not appear nearly so handsome as the common 

 starling. 



The color which is most conspicuous in this and among other Jacamars is a bright metallic 

 coppery-red, which continually changes to a purplish hue, and irresistibly reminds the 

 observer of a copper tea-kettle that has been subjected to the action of fire. The top of the 

 head is green, and the breast is marked with the same hue plentifully mixed with the peculiar 

 coppery tint which has just been mentioned. The chin is grayish white marked with a few 

 brown spots, the chest is dark green and copper, and the wings are also coppery -green, but 

 possess a large admixture of blue. The breast is green with a little copper, and the abdomen 

 chocolate, marked with a few dark longitudinal dashes. The upper surface of the tail is dark 

 shining green, and its under surface is nearly of the same color as the abdomen. The bird is 

 quite a little one. 



Or the genus Jacamaralcyon we have a good example in the THREE-TOED JACAMAR. 



This little bird, which is even smaller than the preceding species, possesses none of the 

 brilliant hues which decorate the majority of the group, but is clad in colors even more sombre 

 than those of the sparrow. The whole of the plumage, with very few exceptions, is of a dark, 

 dull, lustreless, sooty-black, beside which the blackbird would look quite brilliant. On a 

 closer inspection a dark olive-green reflection is visible on the upper surface of the body and 

 tail. The top of the head is marked with two or three chocolate streaks, and there is 

 another stripe of the same color drawn from the comer of the mouth towards the back of the 

 neck. The flanks are of the same sooty-black as the back, but without the green reflection, 

 and the white with a slight rusty-red tinge. The under surface of the tail is a gray brown. 



THE GREAT JACAMAR, or BROAD-BILLED LAMPROTILA, as it is sometimes called, is so like 

 the kingfishers in form and general outline of contour, that it might easily be mistaken for 

 one of those birds by one who had not studied the characteristics of the group with some 

 attention. 



In this bird, which evidently forms a link of transition between the Jacamars and the 

 Bee-eaters, and whose generic name of Jacamarops has been given to it in allusion to that 

 fact, the beak is extremely broad when compared with the compressed bills of the other 

 Jacamars, and the dilated ridge on the upper mandible is distinctly curved. The tail is broad 

 and moderately long, and the feathers of the head form a partial crest. The short neck, 

 rounded wings, and long bill of this bird give it a great resemblance to the kingfishers, and in 

 its attitudes it has a great air of those birds. Like them, it poises itself upon a branch and 

 darts down to secure its active prey in its bill, but differs from them in the fact that it feeds 

 almost exclusively upon insects, and knows not how to snatch from the stream the scaly 

 inhabitants of the waters. 



In its coloring this bird very closely resembles the green Jacamar, which has already been 

 described, but does not possess quite so much of the green hue. 



BEE-EATERS. 



THE BEE-EATERS may at once be distinguished from the Jacamars by the shape of the bill, 

 which, although somewhat similar in general shape to the beak of those birds, is curved 

 instead of straight, and by the formation of the wings, which, instead of being short and 

 rounded, are long and pointed, and give to their owners a wonderful command of the air, 

 while engaged in chasing their winged prey. Some short bristles overhang the nostrils, and 

 the long and broad tail has generally the two outer feathers longer than the others. Their 



