50- 



PICARIAN BIRDS. 



which the work of excavation frequently entails. When digging into some of these 

 holes in a search for the true nest of a tody, I often find them in the occupation of 

 strange tenants, such as field-mice, lizards, and spiders. The latter, black, repulsive- 

 looking objects, are of common occurrence, especially in the depressions formed by 

 the falling away of stones, etc., so that some little caution is necessary in prosecuting 

 a search for the eggs of the bird. The burrows run horizontally and to a con- 

 siderable depth, but invariably (so far as my experience goes) turn at right angles 

 at a few inches from the entrance. The tunnel terminates in a somewhat rounded 

 cell, where, upon a little heap or bed of fine soft earth, without any lining whatever, 

 the eggs are laid. These are usually three or four in number, almost globular, 

 glossy, and of a beautiful pearly white, except that, when fresh, the contents 

 impart a delicate pink tinge to the shell. They are, in fact, miniature kingfisher's 

 eggs. The tameness of the tody is well known, but, as Gosse well remarks, this 

 seems rather the tameness of indifference than of confidence. I have accomplished 

 the capture of specimens with a butterfly-net at different times with little difficulty, 

 and frequently a tody has permitted so near an approach that I have been tempted 

 to put out my hand in the hope of taking it. The todies keep in pairs, if not 

 constantly, for the greater part of a season at least, and during nidification seem 

 to range over a very circumscribed space. Their food appears to consist exclusively 

 of small insects, which they usually pursue and take after a short flight, returning 

 constantly to the same twig, where they will patiently sit and watch, with head 

 drawn in and beak pointing obliquely upwards, the plumage much puffed out ; the 

 wings meanwhile being flirted by a continuous, rapid, vibratory movement." 



The Motmots. 



Family MoMOTlD^-E. 



Exclusively confined to Central and South America, the motmots, of which 

 there are seven genera, are closely allied to the kingfishers and bee-eaters of the 

 Old World, and are by no means unlike the latter in external appearance, most of 

 them having a long tail, with the central feathers produced beyond the others. 

 The first toe is always present ; the hinder margin of the breast-bone has four 

 notches, Avhicli are converted into perforations ; and there are no cfeca to the 

 intestines. The bill is serrated, its saw-like notches being doubtless of use to the 

 birds when they nip off" the webs of their tail-feathers. Both in the wild state 

 and in confinement, as soon as the central feathers of the tail begin to grow 

 beyond the line of the others, the birds commence to nibble the web away, leaving 

 a bare shaft for an inch or an inch and a half, with a large racket at the end 

 of the central pair. In one instance, quoted by Mr. Salvin, the two middle tail- 

 feathers had not grown symmetrically, one being more developed than the other. 

 The bird was evidently puzzled to find the central feather, which its instinct 

 warned it to nibble, and it began operations on several of the other feathers, 

 until in time the middle one grew out beyond the others, and showed which 

 was the proper one to snip. There are seventeen species of motmots, dis- 

 tributed among seven genera, all of them having long tails, with the exception 



