59 



received in Paris, no doubt from the French colony of Cayenne. It thus followed that in 1802 

 Audebert and Vieillot were able to figure it in their ' Oiseaux Dores ' from an example in the 

 Jardin des Plantes, and Levaillant shortly afterwards to give a representation of it in the second 

 volume of his ' Oiseaux de Paradis.' In his ' General History of Birds,' published in 1822, 

 Latham, besides repeating his former description, gave additional details respecting this species 

 from examples which he had examined in the collections of Mr. Leadbeater and Lord 

 Seaforth. 



Lesson in 1831 first proposed to elevate the Great Jacamar to generic rank under the title 

 ^'' Jacamerops" This name, as having undoubted priority, I follow general practice in adopting, 

 in preference to Swainson's term '■'• Laiitprojptila" (erroneously written by the author "^Lamp'O- 

 tila") published in 1837. 



It has been already shown that the specimens of this bird known to the older authors were 

 received from Surinam and Cayenne. In the neighbouring colony of British Guiana Schomburgk 

 met with it generally distributed up to a height of IGOO feet above the sea-level. These birds 

 are found solitary or in pairs, he tells us, and prefer the trees on the banks of the streams and 

 the more open places in the forests. They are usually to be seen sitting sunk down on the 

 branches waiting for insects, which they capture by flying out on them as they pass, quickly 

 returning to their former position. Here they remain often for hours together in quiet solitude 

 without stirring a feather. They are said to breed in holes in the banks, like Galhula viridis. 

 The Macusis call them " Cuiamia," the Warrans " Pohuorong." 



In the interior of the northern part of South America Jacamero]ps grandis has a wide 

 distribution, extending over the great Amazons valley, at least as far south as Borba on the Rio 

 Madeira, and as far west as the Eio Napo. Natterer obtained examples of it at Borba, and again 

 at Maratibanas, on the Rio Negro, and on the neighbouring Rio Icanna, which he explored in 

 1831. Natterer describes it as having the bill black, the eye-ring and lores blackish, the under 

 eyelid olive-grey, the iris dark brown, and the feet olive-green with the soles dirty yellow, and 

 the claws black. 



Mr. Wallace met with Jacamerops on the Capim river, south of Para, and again near Barra, 

 at the mouth of the Rio Negro. He tells us that " this bird has more of the habits of the 

 Trogons than of the true Galbulce. While the latter are always found on the outskirts of the 

 forest, the Jacamerops keeps rather to the gloom, where it sits on boughs hanging over the 

 forest, and captures insects." Proceeding westward we find tliat examples of this species have 

 been transmitted by Mr. Bates from the Rio Javari, by MM. Castelnau and Deville from 

 Sarayafu, on the Ucayali, and by Mr. E. Bartlett from Chamicuros and Santa Cruz in the same 

 district. Mr. Bartlett, however, informs me that he did not find it by any means common. The 

 Indians told him that these birds build in stumps of old trees, and in the banks of the smaller 

 streams. 



Mr. Buckley has lately forwarded skins of this Jacamar from the Rio Napo ; and it also 

 occasionally occurs in Bogota collections, though not very commonly. But that Jacamerops 

 extends over Colombia north of the Andes there can be no 'doubt, as Mr. Salmon obtained it at 

 Remedies, in the State of Antioquia, and it is also found on the isthmus of Panama. Mr. J. 

 M^Leannan procured many specimens when he collected on the Panama railway ; and there are 



