380 CORACIIFORMES CHAP. 
Sub-fam. 1. JZomotinae—Motmots have loose-webbed green, 
blue, cinnamon, and black plumage; the sexes being barely dis- 
tinguishable, and the young similar to the adults, but with less 
developed tail. The length varies from six and a half inches to 
twenty. The head is generally rather narrow; the bill is Crow- 
like, with a few rictal bristles, and has the margins of the mandibles 
more or less serrated; in Prionirhynchus it is unusually broad 
and strongly keeled. The scutellated metatarsus is of no great 
length, the third digit being united to the fourth for about a 
third of its extent; the wings are rather short and rounded, 
with ten primaries and eleven secondaries. The tail-feathers are 
generally twelve, though Baryphthengus has only ten; they are 
very distinctly graduated, as is well seen from beneath, the median 
pair being much elongated with racquet-tips, except in Hylo- 
manes, Aspatha and Baryphthengus. The furcula is U-shaped; the 
tongue 1s long, thin and frayed out towards the apex into laminae 
which point forwards; the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial; the after- 
shaft is small; while neither adults nor nestlings possess down. 
Motmots are not shy. birds, though they inhabit dense forests 
and seldom visit the outskirts; they prefer the vicinity of 
streams, where they may be seen, solitary or in pairs, flitting 
before the traveller from tree to tree, or sitting motionless on 
the lower branches, whence they make sudden dashes to secure 
their prey. This consists of insects caught in the air, small 
reptiles, or fruit; but in captivity they will eat bread, raw meat, 
small birds and mammals, often rapping live creatures on the 
eround or on their perch before swallowing them, as is done by 
Todies, Kingfishers, and Hornbills. The flight is brief, while the 
short legs are ill-adapted to the ground. The long, soft, “ flute- 
like” note recalls that of the Hoopoe, and may be syllabled 
“Hu-tu,”’ this being a native name in some parts; it is most 
commonly heard at dawn, while the bird’s habit of jerking its 
tail up and down as it utters each syllable is comparable to that 
of Barbets and Toucans. Three or four round, creamy -white 
eggs are deposited, without any nest, in holes in trees or banks, 
probably bored by the birds themselves; both sexes being said 
to incubate in turn. Motmots with racquet-tipped rectrices have 
been shewn to produce that shape by nibbling off the vanes.’ 
Urospatha martii, ranging from Costa Rica to Amazonia, 1s 
1 Cf. Salvin, P.Z.S. 18738, pp. 429-433. 
