KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 65 



would this account for the mutilation, even were the conditions of the nest 

 favorable; for the web of the feather is arranged laterally upon the shaft of 

 the feather, which would require a vertical motion to wear it away, while the 

 motion of the bird's tail is transverse to its own body, as also to the nest — a 

 motion only calculated to wear away the shaft from beneath. 



Some of the Momotidse are very tame, and seem to have no fear of man, 

 but rather to prefer his company, making their nests in his wells and in his 

 cellars. Such is the Ewiaomotus superciliaris, a species whose habits I have 

 studied more than all others. 



During my residence of nearly four months in the city of Temax, near the 

 north coast of Yucatan, about twenty of these birds lived in a well from 

 which I used water every day. The water was drawn by means of two 

 buckets attached each to the end of a rope, which played over an iron pul- 

 ley. The well was almost forty feet deep, had been cut through a porous 

 shell-limestone, and its walls contained many cavities into which a man could 

 crawl many feet, but was obliged to back out. Within these cavities live 

 the motmots, and oftentimes very venomous little reptiles, called "cancha?" 

 by the natives. But, risking the poisonous serpents, I have frequently gone 

 many yards into these caverns to investigate the home of the saw-bills and 

 their work therein, and I have always come out feeling well repaid for all 

 the danger, having invariably seen something new and interesting. At one 

 time I have found only the nest, with four or six roundish, white eggs, with 

 the shell so thin and transparent that ihe yolk was plainly visible; at an- 

 other, I have found the young birds in almost every state of development — 

 those with the tail feathers just starting being always the most interesting. 

 The feathers all seem to grow alike to a certain point, except the middle 

 ones, which are always a little broader towards the end; there all cease to 

 grow except the two middle ones, which soon pass the others by about an 

 inch and a half Up to this point the webs of these two feathers are just the 

 same throughout, except the subterminal portion, which is much narrower. 

 Thus far no mutilation has taken place, but as soon as these feathers exceed 

 the others a little more, the web begins to disappear, and the outer web of 

 each feather is generally taken off first. This, however, is not always the 

 case, as the inner web. sometimes goes first. In very few cases have I ever 

 seen a web trimmed farther up than just to the ends of the other tail feathers ; 

 and just as these pass the shorter ones, so are they trimmed until their 

 growth ceases. 



I have never seen the bird arrange its feathers, and especially not its tail, 

 when above-ground, though I have seen them work for a long time with the 

 bill, arranging the tail, while they were in the well — catching hold of it and 

 drawing it around, first on one side, then upon the other, always using the 

 point and not the whole of the bill. 



On examining the bill, it is found to be dentated in the middle portion 

 and smooth at the tip and base. The smooth portion of the tip of the upper 



