of some Guatemalan Birds. 65 



and toi-pid during the rest of the year. I do not know of any- 

 sound that will convey a better idea of the note than that pro- 

 duced by the laboured respiration occurring after each time the 

 air is exhausted in the lungs by the spasms of the hooping-cough. 



The nest of the 'Torovoz^ is subterranean, and is usually found 

 in the banks of rivers, or of water-courses which empty into 

 them. The excavation is horizontal, and 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 3, 

 or at most 9 feet, where the shaft terminates in a circular chamber 

 about 8 inches in diameter and 5 inches high. In this chamber the 

 eggs, usually four in number, are deposited upon the bare soil. 

 The banks of the river which winds through the plain of San 

 Geronimo 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 

 which 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. 



I am now never able to induce my " darky " Chus to plunge 

 his arms into the holes to seek the eggs ; so I have either to do it 

 myself, or to dig right up to the far end. At first he was ' muy 

 valiente •' but it chanced one day, whilst hanging on to a root 

 halfway down the bank of a river, with one arm buried in a 

 * cueva/ that the tips of his fingers suddenly came in contact with 

 the damp abdomen of a callow * Torovoz.' " Carraraba, Don 

 Roberto \" screamed the poor fellow, looking as white as he 

 could through his African skin, "me pico la culebra V There- 

 upon he fell-to in good earnest, invoking the saints to save him, 

 running over a long list of them, many of whose names I had 

 never heard before. Not until after much digging (we had 

 already cut a good piece of the bank down to enable him to reach 

 VOL. HI. r 



