Quezal is rapid and straight; the long tail-feathers, which never seem to he in his way, stream after him. 
The bird is never found hut in forests composed of the highest trees, the lower branches of which (*. e. 
those at about two thirds of the height of the tree from the ground) seem to be its favourite resort. Its 
food consists principally of fruit; but occasionally a caterpillar may be found in its stomach. 
“ Sometimes several males are found together; and then the scene is most exciting as they fly to and fro, 
their long tails streaming after them. 
“ Besides the mountains in the neighbourhood of Coban, Quezals are found in several other parts of 
Guatemala, indeed wherever forests of sufficient extent exist, at elevations varying from 6000 to 8000 or 
9000 feet above the sea-level. Such forests are to be seen in the district of San Antonio or Chilasco, above 
the plain of Salania in Vera Paz, in the high range of Chiantla, the southern slopes of the great Cordillera, 
below Quezaltenango, and in the volcanoes of Agua and Fuego. From all these places I have seen 
specimens ; and in one of the ravines of the last-mentioned, Mr. Godman, who travelled with me in 1861-62, 
shot a male with the tail-feathers nearly fully grown in the month of December. The months of February, 
March, and April, however, are the months when the tails reach their full development.” 
“ The only authentic account of the nesting-habits of the Quezal are given by Mr. Robert Owen in ‘ The 
Ibis ’ for 1861, p. 66. He there says :—“ In an expedition to the mountain of Santa Cruz [Vera Paz], one 
of our hunters told me that he knew of a Quezal’s 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 returned 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 sufficiently 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 deposited. The mountaineers all say that the 
bird avails itself of the deserted hole of a Woodpecker for its nesting-place, probably founding the suppo¬ 
sition on the evident inaptness of the bird’s beak for boring into trees.” 
These eggs are of a bluish green colour, without spots or markings, their form is a roundish oval, only 
slightly more tapering at one end. They measure—axis l - 4 inch, diameter 1*15 inch. 
Considerable variation can be seen in the dimensions of the long caudal plumes of this bird, even in 
specimens all coming from the same country ; some have the central coverts as broad as the hand and a 
yard and a quarter long, whilst others are much narrower. 
In the southern district of its range (Costa Rica and Veragua) these narrow-feathered birds are alone 
found ; and upon this character chiefly the bird from those countries has been called by Dr. Caban is 
Pharomacrus Costaricensh ; but the difference seems to be hardly sufficiently pronounced to warrant the 
separation of the two birds. In Veragua, specimens have been sent me from Chiriqui and the higher 
Cordillera eastward of that volcano as far as Calovevora, which lies to the northward of the village of 
Calobre. Beyond this point to the south-east Quezals have not been observed, the low-lying lands of the 
Isthmus of Panama possessing a hot climate unsuited to their economy. 
The figures in the accompanying Plate are taken less than the natural size. 
