466 MOMOTID^. 



at a distance from the surface, varying with the depth of the barranco or bank in 

 which it is situated. The size of the orifice is sufficient to allow the bare arm to be 

 introduced, the shape being round and regular for three or at most for eight feet, where 

 the shaft terminates in a circular chamber about eight inches in diameter and five 

 inches high. In this chamber the eggs, usually four in number, are deposited on the 

 bare soil. The banks of the river which winds through the plain of San Geronimo are 

 full of excavations made by this bird — that is to say, in such places where the soil is 

 light and the bank chops down perpendicularly. It is a simple matter to hit upon 

 those that are inhabited, as the entrance to the abandoned ones will be found perfectly 

 smooth, whereas the mouth of those which contain eggs or young is ploughed up in 

 two parallel furrows made by the old bird when passing in and out. The ' Torovoz ' 

 is exceedingly tame, and, when startled from its nest, will, perched upon a bough a few 

 yards distant, watch the demolition of its habitation with a degree of attention and 

 fancied security more easily imagined than described." 

 The eggs are glossy white, and measure l-0x0"8 inch. 



Dr. Gaumer was also much interested in Eumomota superciliaris, and of it he 

 writes ^^ : — "During my residence of nearly four months in the city of Temax, near the 

 north coast of Yucatan, about twenty of these birds lived in a well from which I used 

 to draw water every day. The well was almost forty feet deep, had been cut through 

 a porous shell-limestone, and its walls contained many cavities, into which a man could 

 crawl many feet, but was obliged to back out. Within these cavities the Motmots 

 lived, and oftentimes very poisonous little reptiles called ' cauchae ' by the natives. 

 Risking the poisonous serpents, I have frequently gone many yards into these caverns 

 to investigate the home of the Motmots and their work therein, and I have always come 

 out feeling well repaid for all the danger, having invariably seen something new and 

 interesting. At one time I have found only the nest, with four or six roundish, white 

 eggs, with the shell so thin and transparent that the yolk was plainly visible ; at 

 another I have found the young birds in almost every stage of development — those 

 with the tail-feathers just starting growth being always the most interesting. The 

 feathers all seem to grow alike to a certain point, except the middle ones, which are 

 always a little broader towards the end, then all cease to grow except the two middle 

 ones, which soon pass the others by about an inch and a half. Up to this point the 

 webs of these two feathers are just the same throughout, except the subterminal 

 portion, which is much narrower. Thus far no mutilation has taken place, but as 

 soon as these feathers exceed the others a little more the webs begin to disappear, and 

 the outer web of each feather is taken ofi" first. This, however, is not always the case, 

 as the inner webs sometimes go first. In a very few cases have I ever seen a web 

 trimmed further up than just to the ends of the other tail-feathers; and just as these 

 pass the shorter ones, so are they trimmed until their growth ceases. 



" I have never seen the bird arrange its feathers, and especially not its tail, when 

 above ground, though I have seen them work for a long time with the bill arranging 



