MOTMOTS. 



397 



of the colors: Lower parts verdigris-blue, and forehead pale whitish-blue; body above 

 chestnut, passing into rufous on the rump; a black stripe through the eye nearly 

 meets another which posteriorly borders the yellow throat. 



The Meropinaa proper form a group of hardly more than thirty species. Nyctiornis 

 and its allies, which have a more arched bill, and elongated plumes on the throat, like 

 the motmot, form a group of still fewer species. The latter differ also somewhat in 

 their habits, being less active, less sociable, and preferring the dense forests, while 

 Merops is very partial to the open country. 



During the sway of the old theory that the peculiar birds of one hemisphere were 

 represented in the other hemisphere by corresponding forms, the Meropidae were 

 regarded as represented in the New World by the motmots, or MOMOTID^E, a family 

 which is as exclusively American as the bee-eaters are palseogaean. In this case the 

 theory worked tolerably well, for not only is there a certain external resemblance 

 between the two groups, but they are also evidently related, notwithstanding the fact 

 that the former have well-developed caeca, while the latter have lost them. It is diffi- 

 cult to see why the same explanation which has been advanced in order to explain the 

 absence of feather-tufts to the oil gland of several Momotida?, viz., that they Avere 

 lost after the ancestral stock had split up into two branches, one with and another 

 without colic caeca, should not apply just as well to the presence or absence of caeca 

 as compared with the synpelmous and syndactylous arrangement of the toes. 



The Momotidae, like the next family, have the edges of the bill serrated, which 

 has caused them to be united in a common group, called by some authors Serratiros- 

 tres. But this character is not exclusive, since there is a genus of kingfishers (Symci), 

 in which the tomia are likewise denticulated. In contradistinction to the Todidae, 

 however, the tail is graduated and elon- 

 gated, the middle feathers especially so, 

 except in the small species composing the 

 genus Ilylomanes. The number of tail- 

 feathers varies in the different genera 

 between ten and twelve. The present 

 family is not rich in species, and the cen- 

 tre of its distribution seems to be Central 

 America. The predominant colors are 



green 



and rusty, with bluish or beryl- 



green ornamental plumes. 



The habits of these birds have been 

 summed up as follows : " The birds are 

 solitary, or live in pairs, preferring the 

 shady recesses of the forest. They sit 

 motionless on a low branch, often in 

 nooks near rivulets, wherefrom they dart 

 on their prey. Swainson says they catch 

 their prey on the wing, but Kirk avers 

 that they alight to seize it. Ordinarily 

 their food is insects, reptiles, and fruits. 

 In captivity a bold, mistrusting bird, the 

 motmot will then eat bread, raw meat, oranges, watermelons, small birds, mice, 

 lizards, snakes, cockroaches, etc. On pouncing on these latter, they afterwards strike 



FlG. 197. Central tail-feathers of (A) Momi'liia in pro- 

 gress of denudation ; (B) of Eiimoinfitu, and (C) of 

 Mninutiis /fsxniii from above, with central feathers 

 half-grown, but yet partially denuded ; all half natu- 

 ral size. 



