xlii 



IX. Habits and Distribution of the Piiff-hirds. 



As in the case of the Jacamars, very little has as yet been written of the life and habits of the 

 Puff-birds. All that I have been able to find recorded is given under the head of the species to 

 which it relates. Speaking generally it may be said that the Puff-birds are a purely arboreal 

 and forest-frequenting group. They seem to pass the greater part of their lives sitting upon the 

 topmost or outermost branches of the trees, generally selecting twigs that are dry and withered 

 for their perch, and looking out for insects, which are captured flying, and constitute their only 

 food. The Swallow- wing [Clielidoptera) nests in holes in banks, like the Kingfi.shers, and lays 

 white eggs. Of the mode of nidification of the other species of the family we are at present 

 almost entirely ignorant ; but it is probable that they either follow the same practice, or else 

 nest in hollow trees, and that their eggs are colourless, like those of other birds which deposit 

 their eggs in similar situations. 



The distribution of the Puff-birds is shown in the subjoined Table. It may be observed 

 that they do not go quite as far north as the Jacamars, no species of Puff-bird having been yet 

 ascertained to occur in Mexico. On the other hand several species are found in Transandean 

 Ecuador, where, so far as is yet known, but one Jacamar has penetrated ; and a single Bucco ranges 

 as far south as the forest-district of Paraguay, which is, I believe, outside the present known 

 limits of the range of the Galbulce. As with the Jacamars so with the Puff-birds, the strong- 

 hold of the group is the great forest-region of Amazonia. In Eastern Peru and the adjoining 

 districts belonging to Brazil and Ecuador, which I have designated by the more general name of 

 Upper Amazonia, no less than twenty-two species of the group are known to occur, while 

 thirteen have been recorded from Lower Amazonia, and examples of the same number of species 

 were obtained by a single collector in one district of the eastern portion of Ecuador. The 

 interior of Colombia is likewise rich in Bucconidse, twelve or thirteen species being met with 

 in "Bogota" collections. North and south of what may be termed their "focus," these birds 

 rapidly fall off in number of species, until in Guatemala we meet with but two and in Paraguay 

 but one of these birds. 



In the Patagonian and Antillean subregions, as in the case of the Jacamars, there are no 

 Bucconidse. 



