on the motmot.



153



“ had proceeded for several days, a portion of the feather appeared

“ disarranged. When the sheath broke from this part, the fact was

“ made plain that the disordered appearance was due to part of the

“ web coming away with the sheath, and the irregular breaking off

“of the latter made the separate barbs stand out in all directions

“ before being lost.”


And let us take notice of Mr. Beebe's next remarks : —“ When

“ the feathers grew still more, it was seen that above the racquets

“ the regular denuded portion of the shaft was as bare AS IF THE

“ MOTMOT HAD STRIPPED IT.”


“ This was an interesting result and is probably explained by

“ the low vitality of the bird and the severe strain on its plumage-

“ producing resources, causing a lessened and insufficient nutrition

“ in the development of these long feathers.”


Quite so ! but my conviction is that this was merely, owing

to the weakness in the bird’s blood, a hastened example of the shafts

being bared of barbs, which comes about at a slower rate in normal

conditions, and that these barbs fall off, not being removed by the bird

itself any more than it does so with it’s feathers, when moulting.


In Mr. Beebe’s article in “ Zoologica,” there are two very

interesting photographs, showing the congenital weakness of the

barbs which came away above the racquets, and these photographs

being considerably magnified, one can very clearly see how very

weak the barbs are. I have said that I have never seen my motmot

preen the extremities of his two longest tail feathers ; one would

have thought that if ever he did so, it would be after a bath, for in

the warm weather I syringe him, and he then preens his feathers to

dry himself, yet even then I have never seen him reach his racquets

with his bill.


A motmot should really be kept in an aviary, for in a cage

the racquets become worn and frayed after two or three months. I

tried my bird in the only aviary I could put him in, for I would’nt

trust him with small birds, but had to remove him, as my pair of

black and blue Yucatan jays led him a dance, swooping at him and

quite evidently bent upon his destruction ; and on making him black

and blue! Besides which my motmot is a personality of no mean

order with a large share of intelligence, so that I like him in the



