ORDER PASSERES. 423 



and neck are white ; the back, sides, and two intermediate 

 tail-feathers, which extend a little beyond the other, are of 

 light buff colour; the wings are white, but the humeral 

 feathers and the quills for about half their length, are of a 

 fine ultra-marine blue, tipt with black; the rump also is blue, 

 which colour extends up the back to a point ; the outermost 

 or long tail-feathers are tipt with black, and the lateral tail- 

 feathers are ash-coloured, for about half their length from the 

 insertion, then white, and finally tipt with black. 



Fernandez originally described under the name of Motmot 

 the type species of the genus now so named. We have seen 

 that it is not far removed from the bee-eaters, and differs, 

 perhaps principally, in the indented bill and pencillated 

 tongue. Brisson, by suppressing the #, latinized this word 

 momotus, and applied it to a genus. lUiger, ever proud 

 of his classical learning, however happy, in general, in the 

 application of it to zoology, designated the genus by the 

 name prionites, in reference to the indentations of the bill — a 

 character, by the way, we must observe, by no means peculiar 

 to the motmot, and, therefore, not with propriety one from 

 which it should be named. M. Vieillot, having appropriated 

 the Greek of Illiger to one of the families of his Sylvia, has 

 coined a new name for the motmot — this name, baryphonuSf 

 has reference to the voice of the bird, said to be not unlike 

 that of a man. 



We are not as yet well-informed oh the natural habits of 

 the motmots, though D'Azara has written at some length on 

 their manners in captivity. Piso states, that they build on 

 the summits of high trees ; but the better opinion appears to 

 be, that, like the preceding genus, they betake themselves to 

 holes in the ground for the purpose of nidification ; D'Azara 

 describes those he had, as heavy and stiff in their movements, 

 which, on the ground, were by sudden and oblique leaps, with 

 the legs very wide : their tail was in constant motion ; they 



