152



Mr. Hubert D. Astley,



The feet of this species are so very small for the size of the

bird, that it even finds a difficulty in balancing its body on one foot,

whilst scratching the sides of its head, so much so that the move¬

ment has to be very rapid, and I have often seen my bird almost

overbalance. With a bird of a jay size, which has to have perches

to fit the feet of a small passerine bird, such as a nightingale, it can

easily he understood that the feet are very small, and moreover

dumpy without much claw wherewith to clasp.


I have seen my motmot preen the shorter and outer tail

feathers, but never the extremities of the longer ones.


Since the vanes of the two central tail feathers where the

webbing eventually falls away are narrower than in the rest of these

feathers, and decidedly thinner, it may be supposed that this decom¬

position is taking place gradually, until in the far future it might

come about that motmots will grow their racquets with bare shafts

above, just as in the case of the racquet-tailed parrots, and also, I

presume, the racquet-tailed kingfishers.


Mr. Beebe wrote in “ Zoologica ” of loth January, 1910, as

follows :—“The motmot is clad in browns and greens, and is a rather

“ silent, sedentary bird. It would be thoroughly protected on its

“ perch among green foliage were it not for a constant and violent

“ jerking of the closed tail from side to side, through an arc of 45

“to 60 degrees.”


“The individual under consideration has been in my possession

“ since the 5th of Sept., 1908, and in general has been in perfect

“ health, moulting twice, heavily but cleanly, in Sept, of each year.

“ In early Oct., 1908, the motmot began to preen the web of its

“ newly-grown rectrices and within a week the denudation was

“ complete.”


Mr. Beebe goes on to say that he plucked out the two

racqueted feathers in Jan., 1909, and that on fresh ones growing,

“ they were trimmed by the bird as before.” During the second

moult (1909) Mr. Beebe’s motmot seems to have been somewhat

unwell, and after again plucking out the two longest tail feathers,

the fresh ones grew with the sheaths on them, and the folded vane

within was not released until the drying sheaths cracked off when

they were four inches in length. “ When this natural unsheathing



