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THE BRAZILIAN MOTMOT. 
upward. The scapularies are long and sharp in form, and their color is a beautifully pure white, 
contrasting strongly with the deep black of the upper part of the body. At the upper angle 
of each wing there is a well-defined orange line, and a white spot on the inside. The 
wedge-shaped tail is black, the thigh is blackish-brown, and the legs are brown. The color 
of the eyes is blue, which changes to green 
soon after death, and then fades wholly into 
dullness. 
By the natives the bird is called Burong- 
palano, or Tam-palano. Several other species 
of Eurylaimus are known to science, all of them 
being handsome and remarkable birds. The 
Great Eurylaimus (Eurylaimus corydon ), for 
example, is notable for the great width of the 
beak, its bright rosy hue, its hooked form, and 
the very wide gape of the mouth. The plumage, 
too, is colored in a very bold and striking man- 
ner. The general hue is jet black, relieved by a 
large white mark on the middle of the wing, 
another at the extremity of the tail, and a small 
scarlet patch of elongated feathers in the centre 
of the back. As a general rule, the birds of this 
group adhere to the above-mentioned colors, 
but there is a curious and notable exception in 
the person of the Dalhousie’s Eurylaimus (Psa- 
risomus dalTiousice ), whose plumage is tinted 
with blue, green, and yellow, after the manner 
of many paroquets. Indeed, the general aspect 
of the bird irresistibly reminds the observer 
of a paroquet, and the semblance is further 
increased by its long azure tail feathers. 
The Motmots, so called from their monot- 
onous cry, which is thought to resemble the 
syllables mot-mot continually repeated, are in- 
habitants of tropical America and the adjacent 
parts of the world. There are several species 
of these curious and beautiful birds ; but as 
their habits and form are very similar, they can 
be sufficiently represented by a single example. 
The Motmots are among the number of those 
creatures which have perplexed the systematic 
naturalist, and their position in the kingdom of 
birds is even yet subject to doubt. On account 
of their large and deeply serrated mandibles, 
their long-bearded tongue, and the similarity of 
some of their habits, they have been placed close 
to the toucans, to which birds they bear no 
small resemblance. Their feet, however, are of 
entirely different construction ; and instead of 
congregating in flocks like the toucans, they lead solitary lives in the forest depths. In these 
birds the tail is wedge-shaped, and in several of the species the two central feathers are remaik- 
able for a naked space before their termination. 
The Brazilian Motmot is, like the other species of the same genus, a very solitary bird, 
being seldom seen except by those who care to penetrate into the deepest recesses of the 
V 
BRAZILIAN MOTMOT .— Momotus brazuiensis. 
