LIFE HISTORY OF THE QUETZAL—SKUTCH 267 
bird in life. As often as they tell the traveler that the quetzal invari- 
ably dies in captivity, the Guatemalans volunteer the information that 
its nest cavity in a decaying trunk is provided with two opposite door- 
ways, so that the male when he comes to take his turn on the eggs may 
enter from one side, perform his spell of incubation, then depart by 
the other, all without being obliged to turn around to the detriment of 
his gorgeous train. Few Guatemalans have actually seen the quetzal’s 
nest, for the birds survive only in the wildest, least inhabited regions 
of the Republic. Osbert Salvin (Ibis, 1861: 66) tells of a nest in what 
was taken to be an old woodpecker hole. It had a single doorway, and 
he believed that the female alone incubated. 
The foregoing is, briefly, what I had been able to learn about the 
quetzal up to the early half of the year 1937. I had already given 
attention to the habits of Central American birds during seven nesting 
seasons, and I had learned something about the breeding habits of one 
more kind of trogon during each of these years. But of the quetzal I 
had enjoyed only fleeting glimpses on two or three occasions, in the 
highlands of Guatemala and Costa Rica. To complete my studies of 
this family, I needed observations upon its most famous and most 
resplendent member. I wanted to decide for myself between the 
conflicting accounts of its nesting ; but everything I knew about trogons 
inclined me to believe that, in whatever kind of nest, the male shared 
in incubation. 
I was fortunate enough to rent an unexpectedly comfortable cottage 
in a wild region still largely covered with forest, in which quetzals 
were abundant. The adequacy of the dwelling was important, for 
even sheltered as I was, it was at times difficult enough to withstand 
the depressing effects of the cold rainstorms that continued scarcely 
broken for weeks on end, with hardly a gleam of sunshine. The point 
Where I studied the quetzals was at an altitude of 5,500 feet, about 2 
miles below the hamlet of Vara Blanca, on the northern side of the 
Cordillera Central of Costa Rica, along the old trail leading from 
Heredia across the continental divide down through the forests to the 
Rio Sarapiqui, an aflluent of the San Juan. My period of residence 
there extended from July 1937 to August 1938, with less than 2 months 
of absence between November and January. If I did not learn more 
about the ways of the quetzal, it was not because of any lack of these 
birds in the neighborhood, but rather because a wealth of birds of 
other kinds offered too many temptations to divagate. 
THE ENVIRONMENT 
The quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) ranges through the mountains 
from the Mexican state of Chiapas to western Panama. In this thou- 
sand-mile stretch of territory—Central America in the proper geo- 
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