THE



151



Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.


Third Series .— Vol. VII.—No. 6. — All * ights reserved. APRIL, 1916.



THE MOTMOT.


Mm ootus momota.


By Hubert D. Astley.


Hab. : Guiana and N. Brazil.


In the early summer of 1914, when one still looked upon the

Germans as a civilized people, I received from Hamburg a Brazilian

Motmot. His plumage was bedraggled, the wing feathers broken

and frayed, the tail n 'fi-existent save for a few stumps ; for all that,

he had an attraction ,about him, besides which there was the antici¬

patory pleasure of hatching his moult, which commenced in the end

of July, not being ieally completed until October. The tail was of

course the most interesting point to study. Except for a sparseness

and narrowing in the vane near the end, the tail was normal, and

not until the feathers were completely grown did the webbing begin

to fall off, leaving the two racquets on the two central feathers. I

say ‘ fall off,’ because I am almost sure that this is what happened ;

certainly I never saw the bird attempt to remove any; and I do not

believe he can reach it with his bill. The webbing came away in

small uneven patches, taking at least a month before the shafts were

quite bare, when the bird resembled his coloured portrait which the

artist did from him, the figure in the background showing him as he

is when the moult is first completed. I use the masculine gender,

for I think it is a male bird.


Mr. C. William Beebe has, I believe, come to the conclusion

that the motmots do not peck off the webbing above the two racquets,

although he formerly maintained that this was the case. Perhaps

he will write for us on the subject.



