ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORNITHOLOGY^ 
MOMOTUS GULARIS, Lafresnaye. 
Prionites gularis, -Lafresnaye , in Rev. Zool., 1840, p. 130. 
This elegant little Motmot conducts us at once from the larger 
species to the diminutive Hylomanes momotula of Lichtenstein, 
and seems to justify us in reuniting under one genus the closely 
allied groups of Momotus and Hylomanes. It also serves to illus- 
trate the close and indisputable affinity between the Motmots and 
the Bee-eaters, an affinity which is hy no means so generally recog- 
nised as it ought to be. I should be inclined to regard Momotus 
as merely the American form of the sub-family, Mer opines, just as 
the Cuckoos, the Barbets, the Trogons, and the Parrots, have each 
their peculiar generic forms in the old world and the new. In 
Momotus and in Merops, we have the same lustrous sea-green 
plumage, the prevalence of a black streak through the eye, and of 
a black spot on the breast, an almost identical form of foot, and a 
similar prolongation of the medial rectrices. Momotus is mainly 
distinguished by the rounded form of the wing, in accordance with 
its more indolent habits, and by the serration of the mandibles, a 
character of little weight in questions of affinity, as it breaks out, 
pro rt natd, in many remote groups of birds, unaccompanied by 
any other peculiarity of structure. 
Momotus gularis was first described by Baron de Lafresnaye. 
It inhabits Guatemala, and appears to be very rare. The upper 
plumage is a bright sea-green, passing into blue towards the end 
of the tail ; sides of face round the eyes, light chestnut, with an 
oblong black spot on the ears ; throat azure blue, a black spot 
on the breast, formed of two or three elongate feathers, as in 
other species of Momotus ; lower parts pale green, with a fulvous 
lustre, passing into light azure on the belly, and into chestnut on 
the lower tail-covers ; lower wing-covers, and inner margins of 
remiges, also chestnut ; beak horn-colour, paler at the tip ; feet 
brown. 
Total length, 10 ; beak to front, i.'i; to gape, i .4 ; height, 4; 
breadth,!; wing, 3.9; medial rectrices, 5.8; external, 2; tarsus, 
9; middle toe and claw, 9; hind ditto, 5j. — II. E. Strickland. 
33-5 
