186 



THE GKEAT JACAMAE. 



The colour wliicli is most conspicuous in this and amon<T other Jacamars is a bright 

 luetallic coppeiy-red, which continually changes to a purplisli hue, and irresistibly reminds 

 the observer of a copper tea-kettle that has been subjected to the action of fire. The top 

 of the head is green, and the breast is marked with the same hue j)Ientifidly mixed with 

 the pecirliar coppery tint which has just been mentioned. The cliin is greyish white 

 marked with a few brown spots, the chest is dark green and copper, and the wings are 

 also coppery-green, but possess a large admixture of blue. The breast is green with a 

 little copper, and the abdomen chocolate, marked with a few dark longitudinal dashes. 

 The upper surface of the tail is dark shining green, and its under surface is nearly of the 

 same colour as the abdomen. The bird is quite a little one, not so large as our English 

 kingfisher. 



THBEE-IOEL) JXCMiXR.—Jucamardlcyou trlddcl ulu. 



Op the geHus Jacamaralcyon we have a good example in the Theee-TOED Jacamar. 



This little bird, which is even smaller than the preceding species, possesses none of 

 the brilliant hues which decorate the majority of the group, but is clad in colours even 

 more sombre than those of the sparrow. The whole of the plumage, with very tew 

 exceptions, is of a dark, dull, lustreless, sooty-black, beside which the blackbird of 

 Enc^land would look quite brilliant. On a closer inspection a dark olive-green reflection 

 is visible on the upper surface of the body and tail. The top of the head is marked with 

 two or three chocolate streaks, and there is another stripe of the same colour drawn from 

 the corner of the mouth towards the back of the neck. The flanks are of the same sooty 

 black as the back, but without the green reflection, and the white with a slight rusty-red 

 tinge. The under surface of the tail is a grey brown. 



The Gkeat Jacamar, or Broad-billed Lampeotila as it is sometimes called, is 

 so like the kingfishers in form and general outline of contour, that it might easily be 

 mistaken for one of those birds by one who had not studied the characteristics ot the 

 group with some attention. 



In this bird, which evidently forms a link of transition between the Jacamars and the 

 Bee-eaters, and whose generic name of Jacamarops has been given to it in allusion to that 

 fact, the beak is extremely broad when compared with the compressed bills of the other 

 Jacamars, and the dUated ridge on the upper mandible is distinctly curved. The tail is 

 broad and moderately long, and the leathers of the head form a partial crest. The short 

 neck, rounded wings^ andloug bill of this bird give it a great resemblance to the king- 



