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THE GREAT JACAMAR. 



The colour which is most conspicuous in this and among other Jacamars is a bright 

 metallic coppery-red, which continually changes to a purplish 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 plentifully mixed with 

 the peculiar coppery tint which has just been mentioned. The chin 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. 



I'HKKE-TOEU JACAMAU. Jacamaraieyun 



OF the genus Jacamaralcyon we have a good example in the THREE-TOED JACAMAE. 



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 few 

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

 England 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 GREAT JACAMAR, or BROAD-BILLED LAMPROTILA 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 of 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 dilated ridge on the upper mandible is distinctly curved. The tail is 

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

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



