The MOT-MOT (_Prionites momota_) is of an olive-green on the back, wing-covers, and legs; the neck, throat, breast, and belly are reddish yellow; the top of the head, cheeks, and bridles black; and the brow and a narrow collar at the back of the head of a brilliant blueish green; the quills are blackish, the secondaries sky-blue on the outer web. The tail, which is composed of twelve feathers, is green above and black beneath; the eye is reddish brown, the beak black, and the foot horn-grey. This species is nineteen inches long; the wing measures six and a half inches, and the tail eleven inches. According to Burmeister, the Mot-mot inhabits the wooded districts in Northern Brazil; and Schomburghk, who found them very numerous in Guiana, had there an opportunity of observing their habits and mode of life. "Shortly before sunrise," says the last-named writer, "the plaintive and melancholy 'hutu, hutu' of the Saw-billed Roller may be heard among the foliage on the outskirts of the forest, announcing the approach of morning. This remarkable bird seems to avoid all well-lighted places; and, although by no means shy, never appears beyond the outskirts of the forest. It will even allow an intruder to come quite close to its perching-place before it flies off to another twig, where, immediately that it has perched itself, it again begins its well-known notes 'hutu, hutu,' accompanying each syllable with a stroke of its tail somewhat after the manner of our own Wagtail." When about to construct its nest, the Mot-mot selects a round or oval depression in the side of some hillock, or other elevated spot; and although the male and female regularly relieve each other at short intervals, the monotonous duty of incubation seems by no means agreeable to either; so that after sitting for three or four minutes quietly upon the eggs they begin to turn themselves round, and it is supposed to be by the constant repetition of this movement in a circle that the feathers of their tail become in time quite spoiled and worn away. As to their eggs, Schomburghk gives us no information whatever, nor do we find anything recorded concerning them in the works of other naturalists. [Illustration: THE MOT-MOT (_Prionites momota_).] * * * * *