FAMILY MOMOTIDAE 447 



watching the moving ant columns working up tree-trunks and vines. 

 When a prey animal moves out to escape the ants, the motmot pur- 

 sues, taking the prey from the trunk of a tree or the leaf of a palm. 

 I watched one take a large scorpion and spend five minutes killing the 

 creature before swallowing it whole." 



The nesting period in Panama comes in February and March, 

 nest burrows being dug in steep-banked barrancas. I have seen no 

 record of the eggs. 



The species is one that is seriously affected by cutting the forests 

 that are its haunts, as it seems less adaptable than the blue-headed 

 motmot. The eastern race Momotus m. conevus of the smaller 

 species is found in the same general areas as the rufous motmot, 

 though the latter ranges more in the heavier forests of the hills. 

 Neither species seems to be sufficiently abundant for active compe- 

 tition between them. 



To the north the rufous motmot ranges through the lower Carib- 

 bean slope of Costa Rica to eastern Nicaragua. Southward it is 

 found along the Pacific slope of Colombia to western Ecuador, in 

 the north and east to the middle Magdalena Valley. 



P. L. Sclater in the original description of semirufus wrote that 

 he was indebted to the Verreaux firm for the privilege of describing 

 it and another motmot "recues tout recemment de Saint-Marthe" 

 and at the end wrote "Habitat : Santa-Martha, in Nova Granada, 

 et ad Rivum Rio-Javarri dictum." Two years later Sclater in a 

 list of the species of birds "received in collections from Santa Fe 

 di Bogota" (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1855, p. 136), included semi- 

 rufus with the remark that he "was inclined to think" that it was 

 the same as the motmot described by Spix under the name martii. 

 And in a review of the motmot family (idem, 1857, pp. 254-255) 

 under semirufus lists it as "Hab. New Grenada, Santa Martha and 

 Bogota : Rio Napo Ecuador (Jameson) ; Upper Peruvian Amazon, 

 Rio Javarri (Cast, et Dev.)" with the explanation that he had seen 

 one labeled Bogota, and another collected by "Castelnau and Deville 

 on the Rio Javarri." He remarked again that semirufus seemed to 

 resemble martii of Spix. 



It has been recognized generally that the allocation of the original 

 specimens to Santa Marta came through error as the bird is not 

 found in that region. De Schauensee (Caldasia, no. 23, 1949, p. 599) 

 in stating this fact wrote that it was "probable that the type came 

 through Santa Marta from the Middle Magdalena Valley." It seems 

 appropriate from this to designate the latter area as the type locality. 



