66 Mr. 0. Salvin uv, the Nesting 



the nest), and a fair sight of the supposed reptile, would he be 

 comforted, and then, with fervent maledictions on the genus in 

 general, and this species in particular, he shouldered his gun and 

 walked on in silence. 



17. Pharomacrus paradiseus. " Quezal." Mountains of 

 Santa Cruz, June 11, 1860. Female bird and two eggs. 



The egg (Plate II. fig. 1) is a bluish green, without spots or 

 markings, its form being like that of the egg of any other Fissi- 

 rostral species. It measures, axis l'4iu., diam. 1*15 in. 



These eggs and the bird were exhibited at a Meeting of the 

 Zoological Society, November 13, 1860. 



In an expedition to the mountain of Santa Cruz, one of our 

 hunters told me that he knew of a Quezal's nest about a league 

 from Chilasco, a place in the same range, and offered to shoot 

 for me the female and bring me the eggs if I would send my 

 servant to help him. This I accordingly did, and my man re- 

 turned with the hen and two eggs. They stated that they found 

 the nest in a hollow of a decayed forest-tree, about 26 feet from 

 the gi'ound. There was but one orifice, not more than suffi- 

 ciently large to allow the bird to enter, and the whole interior 

 cavity was barely large enough to admit of the bird turning 

 round. Inside there were no signs of a nest, beyond a layer of 

 small particles of decayed wood upon which the eggs were de- 

 posited. The mountaineers all say that the bird avails itself of 

 the deserted hole of a Woodpecker for its nesting-place, probably 

 founding the supposition on the evident inaptness of the bird's 

 beak for boring into trees. — R. 0. 



I think that this satisfactory account at once sets at rest the 

 disputed points regarding the breeding of the Quezal. My own 

 belief is, and always has been, that the male bird never incubates 

 the eggs, but leaves that duty entirely to the female. The origin 

 of the story of the nest being placed in a hole passing through 

 the tree has evidently arisen from the inability of supposing any 

 other form of nest in the hollow of a tree which could dispose of 

 the tail of the male bird. Imagination came to the rescue, and 

 suggested the one hole for the bird to enter, and the other for it 

 to pass out. That the story took its origin in Guatemala I have 



