456 



Order PICIFORMES 



Family GALBULIDAE : Jacamars : Barranqueros y 

 Tucusos de Montana 



The 15 species of this New World family are found from Mexico 

 to northern Argentina, with their greatest variety in the vast valley 

 of the Amazon. The three found in Panama, like their companions 

 elsewhere, are birds of slender form, forest-dwellers, that live on 

 insects, which they seize from leaves or branches, or expertly from 

 the air. Some, of medium size, are adept in the capture of butter- 

 flies, not a common food for birds, taking even those of quick, erratic 

 flight, and larger kinds like the brilliant blue morphos, and the 

 swallow-tails. They nest in burrows, usually in earthen banks, 

 though rarely some have their shelters in cavities in the domed homes 

 of termites. Eggs are white, and those species in which the young 

 have been seen on hatching have a body covering of long filamentous 

 down. Little or nothing is known in detail of the nesting and other 

 habits of a majority of the species. 



KEY TO SPECIES OF GALBULIDAE 



1. Large; wing more than 100 millimeters; bill broad and heavy. 



Great jacamar, Jacamerops aurea penardi, p. 465 



Small ; wing less than 90 millimeters ; bill slender, with a thin, finely pointed 



tip 2 



2. Upper surface and breastband shining metallic green; tail longer than wing, 



more than 88 millimeters. 



Rufous-tailed jacamar, Galbula ruficauda, p. 459 

 Upper surface and breastband dull greenish black ; tail shorter than wing, less 

 than 60 millimeters. 



Salmon's jacamar, Brachygalba sahnoni, p. 456 



BRACHYGALBA SALMONI Sclater and Salvin: Salmon's Jacamar, 

 Barranquero Chico 



Figure 55 



Brachygalba sahnoni P. L. Sclater and O. Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 

 October 1879, p. 535. (Rio Nechi, Antioquia, Colombia.) 



Small (body of sparrow size), with long, very slender, finely 

 pointed bill ; upper surface, breast, and sides faintly greenish black. 



Description. — Length 165 to 180 mm. Ten rectrices; tail shorter 

 than wing. Adult (sexes alike), above somewhat iridescent dull, 

 dark oil green to greenish black, crown (especially the forehead) 

 changing to dull brown; primaries and primary coverts black; sec- 



