66 
Mr. 0. Salvin on the Nesting 
the nest), and a fair sight of the supposed reptile, would he be 
comforted, and then, with fervent maledictions on the genus in 
general, and this species in particular, he shouldered his gun and 
walked on in silence. 
17. Pharomacrus paradiseus. “ Quezal” Mountains of 
Santa Cruz, June 11, 1860. Pemale bird and two eggs. 
The egg (Plate II. fig. 1) is a bluish green, without spots or 
markings, its form being like that of the egg of any other Fissi- 
rostral species. It measures, axis 1*4 in., diam. 1*15 in. 
These eggs and the bird were exhibited at a Meeting of the 
Zoological Society, November 13, 1860. 
In an expedition to the mountain of Santa Cruz, one of our 
hunters told me that he knew of a QuezaPs nest about a league 
from Chilasco, a place in the same range, and offered to shoot 
for me the female and bring me the eggs if I would send my 
servant to help him. This I accordingly did, and my man re¬ 
turned with the hen and two eggs. They stated that they found 
the nest in a hollow of a decayed forest-tree, about 26 feet from 
the ground. There was but one orifice, not more than suffi¬ 
ciently large to allow the bird to enter, and the whole interior 
cavity was barely large enough to admit of the bird turning 
round. Inside there were no signs of a nest, beyond a layer of 
small particles of decayed wood upon which the eggs were de¬ 
posited. The mountaineers all say that the bird avails itself of 
the deserted hole of a Woodpecker for its nesting-place, probably 
founding the supposition on the evident inaptness of the bird^s 
beak for boring into trees.—P. 0. 
I think that this satisfactory account at once sets at rest the 
disputed points regarding the breeding of the Quezal. My own 
belief is, and always has been, that the male bird never incubates 
the eggs, but leaves that duty entirely to the female. The origin 
of the story of the nest being placed in a hole passing through 
the tree has evidently arisen from the inability of supposing any 
other form of nest in the hollow of a tree which could dispose of 
the tail of the male bird. Imagination came to the rescue, and 
suggested the one hole for the bird to enter, and the other for it 
to pass out. That the story took its origin in Guatemala I have 
