1850 



THE PIC A RI AN BIRDS 



outer surface, a broad groove on the base of the nest showing where it had nested 

 on the upper surface of an almost horizontal bough." The egg was white. Mr. 

 Hartert says that the part is formed by the down, taken from the "powder downs " 

 of the bird itself, and then completed by having the outside interwoven and covered 

 with bits of bark and lichen, so that the nest entirely resembles the branch to 

 which it is attached. The nests of B. hodgsoni, which Mr. Hume describes, were 

 about three and a half inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch in thick- 

 ness; the lower surface of the pad, where they were in contact with the branch hav- 



GREAT-EARED FROGMOUTH. 

 (One-half natural size.) 



a thin coating of moss. The whole of the nest is a compact, brown, felt-like mass, 

 very soft and downy, and composed, as it appears to be, of excessively fine moss 

 rootlets, but withal as soft as the fur of any little mammal. This will doubtless be 

 found to be the powder down of the bird itself. 



These birds differ from the other frogmouths in having the nostrils 

 Owlet Frog- 

 Mouths sl tuated near the tip of the bill, and being open and prominent. 



There are no distinct powder-down patches, and the metatarsus is 

 longer than the middle toe. The loral bristles are greatly elongated, and give the 



