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»y 1p 2 his wa stream aft ee
: : 1 str ight 5 - the long tail- feathers, S, W hicl b never seem to be in C y; Fe el him.
: ver : iia et fi ts nposed of the highest trees, the low Ch br anches O which (2. ée.
, i is n torests Col {
The bird IS never found but 1 ; ; a i a am
an I t t flames ne height of the nee fr om a ee! seem ic Ee avo Its
those at abou wo e eso

food co isists S

e ‘iting as a ’ fly t .
Ser ci oe Alia: - are Pra eee ; ail then the scene is most exciting ¢ ey fly to and fro,
«« Sometimes severé :

or them.
their long tails streaming after n several other par
« Besides the mountains in the neighbourhood of Coban, Quezals are found 1 é parts of
28 Ss Cc

sufficient extent exist, at elevations varying from 6000 to 8000 or
Guatemala, indeed wherever forests of sufficien
~ ] level h forests are to be seen in the district of San Antonio or Chilasco, above

( set above the sea-level. Suc é
aoe 7 : sh range of Chiantla, the southern slopes of the great Cordillera,
the plain of Salania in Vera Paz, in the high range o antla, “
below Quezaltenango, and in the volcanoes of Agua and Fuego. From all these places I have seen

LC ’ . .

: ae : ae ast-mentioned, Mr. Godman, who travelled with me in 186]-62
specimens ; and in one of the ravines of the last-mentioned, Mr. , ,
shot a male with the tail-feathers nearly fully grown in the month of December. The months of February,
s c - - i <i ans me ”

March, and April, however, are the months when the tails reach their full development.
. . : en ec , 2 2 = ‘ ‘

“The only authentic account of the nesting-habits of the Quezal are given by Mr. Robert Owen in ‘ The
Wis 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 eg ges. 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 s say that the
bird avails itself of the deserted hole of a W oodpecker 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 oy al, only
slightly more tapering at one end. They measure—axis 1:4 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 anda

yard and a quarter long, whilst others are ae narrower.

In the southern district of its range (Costa Rica and Verag
found; and upon this character
Peapone cms Costaricensis ;

gua) these narrow-feathered birds are alone

chiefly the bird from those countries has been called by Dr. Cabanis
but the difference seems to be hardly
separation of the two birds. In Ver ragua,

Cordillera eastward of that voleano as far
Calobre. Beyond this point to the

sufficiently pronounced to warrant the
specimens have been sent me from Chiriqui and the higher
as Calovevora, which lies to the northward of the village of

south-east Quezals have not been observed, the low -lying lands of the
a hot climate unsuited to their
The figures in the accompanying Plate

Isthmus .
of Panama possessing sconomy.

are taken less than the natural size.