ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE MOTMOTS AND TODIES
The Motmots
(Subfamily Momotina;), which range in length from about six and a half to twenty inches, are rather handsome birds with much of green, blue, cinnamon, and black in their loose-webbed plumage, and in most of the forms the central tail-feathers are much longer than the others and terminate in racket-shaped tips. Structurally they are distinguished by the bridge (desmognathous) form of palate, a breast-bone with four notches on the hinder margin which are converted into foramina, while the blind intestines (cseca) are entirely absent.
The bill, which is Crow-like in appearance, is provided with more or less pronounced saw-like notches, the exact function of which is not well understood. In the elongated central tail-feathers the racket-shaped expansions are usually separated by a long naked space from the web of the basal portion of the feather.
There has been much discussion as to the manner in which these curious”rackets”are produced, some claiming that the birds themselves nibble away the webs as soon as they begin to project beyond the others, thus leaving the shaft bare for an inch or more.
They have been observed to do this in captivity, but on the other hand Dr. Stejneger has described and figured specimens belonging to the U. S. National Museum in which the central tail-feathers, not yet half grown, are shown to be perfectly racket-shaped. He also shows that the intermediate portion of the web appears to be cut off by a line of holes, and this part would be quite likely to be broken away by the serrated bills of the birds as they are preening these feathers. The other feathers of the tail, as may be observed on the under side, are much graduated, the outer pair being often hardly a third the length of the others.
previous bird species next bird species
Footer
Footer