110 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



a note resembling chip, chip, like a Crossbill, but 

 decidedly louder. This is probably the note that 

 Gould describes as pee, pee." 



NKW ZEALAND KINGFISHER (Halcyon vagans). 



Larger than H. sanctus, and rather duller on upper 

 parts ; eyebrow-streak green ; below often rich ochreous- 

 red : bill black, with the basal portion of the lower 

 mandible white ; feet dark brown ; irides black. Female 

 with the eyebrow-streak less vivid in colouring ; breast 

 feathers partly fringed with dark brown, but less 

 strongly than in young birds ; bill much longer and 

 more regularly tapered than in the male. Hab., New 

 Zealand ; Norfolk Island and Lord Howe's Island. 



This is little more than a local race of the preceding 

 species, and, as it is now very little likely to be im- 

 ported, it is hardly worth while to take up space in 

 considering it further. Three specimens, received in 

 exchange, were acquired by the London Zoological 

 Gardens in 1872. 



So far as I am aware, this appears to represent the 

 whole of the Kingfishers hitherto imported, at any 

 rate into the British market; whether any others have 

 reached the Continent I am unable to learn. 



The Hornbills (Bucerotidce) do not appear to me to 

 be suitable either for cage-culture or for keeping in 

 any but very large aviaries; they are huge, ungainly, 

 but interesting birds. As they are never in the least 

 likely to be favourites with aviculturists, I cannot see 

 that any advantage would be gained by including them 

 in the present work. I shall therefore proceed with 

 the Mot/not*, which, though rarely imported, are tco 

 beautiful to be ignored. 



CHAPTER VII. 



MOTMOTS (Momotiiln-). 



Linnaeus, who only knew of one species of Motmot, 

 regarded it as a Toucan, but Dr. Murie conclusively 

 proved that the M.<nnnfj<l<r \vere most nearly related to 

 the Todies, and placed them in the same section with 

 the Rollers, Bee-eaters, and Kingfishers. Garrod, 

 though he admitted their relationship to the last- 

 mentioned, considered that the Motmots and Todies 

 ought to be placed in one family. 



In their general colouring these birds resemble the 

 Rollers ; they have long serrated bills and ten to twelve 

 usually long tail-feathers ; of these, in most of the 

 genera, the two central ones are rendered spatulate by 

 the action of the birds themselves in biting off the 

 barbs for about an iiu-h a little before the extremity.* 



The Motmots inhabit Central and South America ; 

 they nest in a hole in a tree or bank, and lay creamy 

 whitish egg.< ; their food consists chiefly of insects and 

 fruit, and doubtless in captivity they would do well 

 upon a good insectivorous food supplemented by plenty 

 of ripe fruit, a few living insects or their larvae, and an 

 occasional mouse or small dead bird. 



BRAZILIAN MOTMOT (Momotus momola). 

 Above grass-green ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, 

 and outer webs of flights blue ; tail-feathers blue towards 

 the tips, the middle-feathers with the rackets blue 



* Dr Sclater, however, throws doubt upon this statement (ee 

 The Ibis, 1895, p. 399), but Prof. ('. W. Beobc evidently believes 

 in it (see " Two Naturalists in Mexico," pp. 199-201). 



tipped with black ; centre of crown black ; forehead 

 silvery blue continuous with a stripe over eye which 

 deepens behind into ultramarine and encircles the black 

 of the crown ; a rust-red patch on back of neck ; lores, 

 feathers below eye, and ear-covt-rt.s black ; above the 

 latter a line of silvery blue and a second between the 

 black of the face and the cheeks ; these, the lateral 

 margins of back of crown and sides of neck green, 

 slightly olivaceous.; under surface olivaceous-green, 

 rufescent on throat and sides of body ; an elongated 

 patch of bluish edged hackle-like feathers on throat ; 

 under wing-coverts pale tawny ; edge of wing green ; 

 flights below dusky, greyish buff on edge of inner webs. 

 Female differs in being slightly greener on under parts. 

 Hab., "Guiana, extending to the Rio Negro along the 

 Amazon region to Para." (Sharpe.) 



Burmeister observes (" Systematise-he Uebersicht," 

 II., pp. 413, 414) : " Schomburgh, who observed it 

 breeding on several occasions, states that it nests in 

 .holes in old branches, and in this manner by fraying 

 the tail against the margin of the nest so curiously 

 wears away its two middle tail-feathers. As both sexes 

 exhibit this denudation, they must both incubate." A 

 strange conclusion for this naturalist to come to, and 

 one now known to be incorrect! 



Dr. Goeldi obtained this species on the Capim River 

 in 1897. but he does not describe its habits ('/., 

 Th<> /&/.-. 1903, pp. 496. 497, 498). According to 

 Buffon this species is called " Hutu " by the natives of 

 Guiana, " because every time it takes a jump it utters 

 the note hutu strongly and clearly. This bird lives 

 very solitary, and one only meets with it in vast 

 forests. It neither goes about in communities nor in 

 pairs, one almost always sees it alone on the earth or 

 upon branches at no great altitude, then so to speak 

 it does not fly at all, it only takes active leaps and 

 utters its hutu, and that moreover very early before 

 other birds have commenced their song. Piso is wrongly 

 informed in that he says that this bird builds its nests 

 upon great trees. It contents itself by searching on 

 the surface of the earth for the burrow of an Armadillo, 

 Akuchi, or some other four-footed beast, into which it 

 drags some dry stalks of weeds, in order to lay its eggs 

 therein, the number of which is usually two. In the 

 inner parts of Guiana also these birds are tolerably 

 numerous ; they very rarely approach the neighbour- 

 hood of human habitations. Their flesh is dry and not 

 exactly eatable. They are caught with difficulty ; as 

 they live upon insects, it is difficult to tempt them. 

 Those which are captured adult are miserable and 

 nervous, and will on no account accept food" (rf., 

 Russ. " Die Fremdlandischen StubenvSgel," II.. p. 676). 



Puss says that in 1885 Arminins Bail 1 wrote to Die 

 Gefiederte Writ that in the spring of that year a 

 Motmot in the Berlin Zoological Gardens had passed 

 through its moult and had neither bitten off nor broken 

 away ~ the tail-feathers. Amongst other things it 

 received mealworms and moths. Azara's birds ate bread, 

 and " preferred even raw meat after they had banged 

 it several times on the ground as though it were some 

 captured prey which must first be killed. Small birds 

 which they hunted some time and eventually killed in 

 this manner they consumed with quite marvellous pre- 

 ference. In like manner they hunted mice. On the 

 other hand, they would not interfere with larger birds. 

 Then again they greedily accepted water-melons and 

 oranges" but, on the other hand, no kind of grain. 

 They despised large pieces and never grasped them with 

 their claws." This Motmot reached the London Zoo- 

 logical Gardens in 1877, and two or three have from 



