The Birds of British Guiana. 149 



Sitting motionless upon some high branch of a tree they will 

 suddenly dart down with the swiftness of an arrow upon some 

 insect flying below, and with unerring aim. It will be noticed 

 that their beaks are slentlerer and sharper than the Kingfishers' 

 and their plumage softer and more brilliantly metallic, being 

 generally copperv or golden-green above and reddish below. 

 They are found in the Xeo-tropical regions. On account of 

 the peculiar brilliancy of their plumage they have been called 

 Large Humming Birds. The sexes are alike. They nest in 

 holes like Kingfishers and like them, lay roundish, shining 

 white eggs. The Paradise Jacamar is characterised by a me- 

 dian pair- of long , tapering, tail feathers. The Kingfisher- 

 Jacamar differs from all others in possessing only three toes, 

 the hallux being absent. There are six genera and twenty-two 

 species of these birds. 



Jacamars — (Colonial). GaJbulinae. 



Paradise Ja(;amar Vro^alba paradisca. 



Green ,, (ialbiila viridis. 



♦Red-tailed Jaqamar ,, nificauda. 



Wliite-beaked ,, ,, albirostris. 



*Bright-vented ,, ,, leucogaster. 



Brown ,, Brachygalha higubris. 



Kingfisher ,, (?) Jacaiuaralcyon tridactyla. 



The Great ,, Jacaincrops aurca. 



Trogons. — Trogons are singularly beautiful birds, 

 forming a distinct class. They are somewhat hawk-like in 

 form, but very different in colouring. Bright, metallic blue or 

 purple above, pale yellow below, with delicate markings of 

 white, black, or grey, are common colourings. The feathers 

 are soft and silky and the skin so thin and tender that they 

 easily come off with rough handling; there is no under-down. 

 The tail-feathers are often curiously squared and are often 

 barred or striped, hawk-like, underneath. In the Ouezal 

 (Pharomacrns mocinno) the tail upper coverts extend enor- 

 mously beyond the rectrices, the two median ones being the 

 longest. The bird is found in Central America and probably 

 not in this colony. 



The bill is wide at the gape and beset with bristles. The 

 maxilla is notched at the end and both mandibles are often 

 toothed or serrated, The feet are weak and heterodactyl, the 



