65 
of some Guatemalan Birds. 
and torpid during the rest of the year. I do not know of any 
sound that will convey a better idea of the note than that pro¬ 
duced by the laboured respiration occurring after each time the 
air is exhausted in the lungs by the spasms of the hooping-cough. 
The nest of the ‘Torovoz* is subterranean, and is usually found 
in the banks of rivers, or of water-courses which empty into 
them. The excavation is horizontal, and at a distance from the 
surface, varying with the depth of the barranco or bank in which 
it is situated. The size of the orifice is sufficient to allow the bare 
arm to be introduced, the shape being round and regular for 3, 
or at most 9 feet, where the shaft terminates in a circular chamber 
about 8 inches in diameter and 5 inches high. In this chamber the 
eggs, usually four in number, are deposited upon the bare soil. 
The banks of the river which winds through the plain of San 
Geronimo are full of excavations made by this bird,—that is to 
say, in such places where the soil is light and the bank chops 
down perpendicularly. It is a simple matter to hit upon those 
which are inhabited, as the entrance to the abandoned ones will 
be found perfectly smooth, whereas the mouth of those which 
contain eggs or young is ploughed up in two parallel furrows 
made by the old bird when passing in and out. The f Torovoz 3 
is exceedingly tame, and, when startled from its nest, will, 
perched upon a bough a few yards distant, watch the demolition 
of its habitation with a degree of attention and fancied security 
more easily imagined than described. 
I am now never able to induce my “ darky ” Chus to plunge 
his arms into the holes to seek the eggs; so I have either to do it 
myself, or to dig right up to the far end. At first he was f muy 
valiente ; 3 but it chanced one day, whilst hanging on to a root 
halfway down the bank of a river, with one arm buried in a 
f cueva 3 that the tips of his fingers suddenly came in contact with 
the damp abdomen of a callow ‘ Torovoz/ “ Carramba, Don 
Roberto V 3 screamed the poor fellow, looking as white as he 
could through his African skin, “me pico la culebra V 3 There¬ 
upon he fell-to in good earnest, invoking the saints to save him, 
running over a long list of them, many of whose names I had 
never heard before. Not until after much digging (we had 
already cut a good piece of the bank down to enable him to reach 
F 
VOL. III. 
