274 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946 
border. The six nests I found in 1938 ranged from 14 to an estimated 
60 feet in height above the ground. Insize and form the cavity closely 
resembles that of the larger woodpeckers, as the Guatemalan ivory- 
bill (Scapaneus guatemalensis) or the pileated woodpecker 
(Ceophloeus lineatus). The single entrance at the top is irregularly 
circular, about 4 to 414 inches in diameter. One hole which appeared 
to be freshly carved—the man who showed it to me said he had seen 
the birds at work—extended to the depth of only 414 inches below the 
lower edge of the doorway. This contained eggs, although they had 
been broken before I saw the nest. A second nest, which was very 
old and weathered when the quetzals began to use it, extended 11 inches 
below the sill of the doorway and was 6 inches in width. Although 
the other nests were inaccessible, I believe that most of them had a 
depth well in excess of the 414 inches of the shallow one I measured; 
this opinion is based on the positions of the birds when incubating or 
feeding nestlings within them. | 
In form, the quetzal’s cavity is quite distinct from that of the other 
trogons’ nests I have seen (Skutch, Auk, vol. 59, pp. 341-863, 1942). 
Some trogons lay their eggs in cavities they carve in termites’ or 
wasps’ nests, others in decaying wood. But of the other trogons that 
dig into wood, the Mexican, Jalapa, and graceful trogons are content 
with shallow niches that leave much of the incubating bird exposed 
to outer view. Baird’s trogon (Trogon strigilatus bairdi) carves 
deep into the trunk, forming a completely enclosed chamber entered 
through an obliquely ascending tube. 
The trunk in which the quetzal nests is sometimes in the last stages 
of decay. One nest cavity was situated at a height of 30 feet in the 
top of a massive but very rotten stub standing in a pasture. Since 
I had not at the time of finding this seen any lower nest, I made a 
determined effort to glimpse its contents, standing on the next-to- 
highest rung of a tall ladder and holding a mirror at the doorway, still 
above my head, while the interior was illuminated by an electric bulb. 
While I was engaged in this foolhardy venture, a visiting naturalist 
looked on and prophesied disaster. I could see nothing, yet dared not 
step upon the topmost rung and depend for support upon the trunk 
alone. But later, after the nestlings had flown, we put a rope about 
this trunk, cut some of the supporting prop roots, and pulled it over; 
for I wished to examine and measure the cavity. Upon striking the 
ground, the upper portion fell into a formless heap of rotten wood. 
It was not even possible to distinguish the point where the chamber 
had been! We had a similar experience with a trunk containing an 
empty 18-foot-high nest, which we pushed over in the forest for exami- 
nation. After it struck the ground, there was nothing left to examine. 
Not infrequently, a woodpecker hole will remain perfectly intact and 
