The Motmots of our Mexican Camp 



i6i 



wings, enjoy a bath in the early morning sun. The only other birds which 

 I have ever known thus voluntarily to invert themselves are a Parrakeet, a 

 Caracara and a Condor, all in captivity. 



Like their distant cousins the Kingfishers, these birds bore a tunnel into 

 a vertical bank and make their nest at the end, six or eight feet deep in the 

 earth. The pure beauty of the water-lily is conceived in the filthy, noisome 

 muck at the pond bottom, and the delicate hues of the Motmot are acquired 

 in a black, ill-smelling, underground hole. 



We will ever regret not seeing these birds during the period of courtship 

 and nesting, but, as with most of the other birds of this country, that occurs 

 later in the year. One must visit Mexico in the early summer to study the 

 birds at the most interesting of all times — the breeding season. 



MOTMOT'S TAIL-FEATHERS FROM WHICH THE BIRD WAS JUST BEGINNING TO PICK THE 

 VANE, AND FEATHERS IN WHICH THE TRIMMING WAS COVIPLETED 



