XXVI 



V. Eahits and Distribution of the Jacamars. 



Nearly all the particulars that I have been able to find recorded concerning the habits of 

 the Jacamars are given under the heads of the various species to which they refer. On the 

 whole they are exclusively arboreal and forest-loving birds, the true Jacamars keeping more to 

 the outskirts of the forests and to the summits and outer branches of the trees, while Jacamero'ps 

 rather resembles the Trogons, and is found only in the dense interior. All of them seem to be 

 purely insectivorous. 



Little is as yet known about the nesting-habits of this family ; and 1 have never seen a 

 Jacamar's q^%. But Mr. Kirk has recorded that in Tobago G. ruficauda " builds in marl-banks 

 like the Motmot," and lays " pure white eggs, nearly circular " in shape ; and Herr Euler states 

 that Jacamaralcyon tridactyla " bores holes in the steep banks, no doubt for purposes of nidifi- 

 cation." Of JacamerojJS Schomburgk tells us the same story ; but Mr. Bartlett was informed 

 by the Indians of Upper Amazonia that Jacamerops also nests in stumps of old trees. It is 

 probable that the other members of the group do not deviate from these practices. 



As regards their distribution, the Jacamars are entirely restricted to the wooded districts of 

 the Neotropical Region. Here they are met with in four of the six subregions into which I 

 divide this region, being absent only in the Antillean and Patagonian Subregions, and being 

 most prevalent in the Amazonian Subregion, as will be seen by the subjoined table: — 





Transpanamanic 

 Subregion (2). 



Colombian Subregion (7). 



Amazonian Subregion (14). 



Brazilian Sub- 

 region (3). 



I. 



Mexico 



and 



Guatemala. 



II. 



Costa Rica 



and 



Panama. 



III. 



Colombia. 



IV. 



Venezuela. 



V. 



Western 

 Ecuador. 



VI. 



Guiana. 



vn. 



Lower 

 Amazonia. 



vin. 



Upper 

 Amazonia. 



IX. 



Bolivia. 



X. 



S.E. Brazil. 



XI. 



Int. Brazil. 



■Urogalba paradisea 



TJrogalba amazonum 



Galbula viridis 





* 







* 



* 

 * 



* 



* 

 * 



* 

 * 



* 







* 



* 

 * 



* 



* 

 * 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 



* 

 * 



* 

 * 



* 



Galbula rufoviridis 



Galbula ruiicauda ........ 



GalbiUa melanogenia 



Galbula albirostris 



Galbula cyaneicollis 



Galbula leucogastra 



Galbula chalcothorax 



Brachygalba lugubris 



Brachygalba goeringi 



Brachygalba salmoni 



Brachygalba albigularis .... 

 Brachygalba melanosterna . . 

 Jacamaralcyon tridactyla . . 

 Galbalcyrhynchus leucotis . . 

 Jacamerops grandis 





'*t 





1 



2 



4 5 



1 



7 



6 



7 



2 2 



2 



t See Postscript, p. sliii. 



