504 TROGONIDZ. 
side of those countries north of Costa Rica, nor is it to be found in the more broken 
and thinner forests of the central portion of the Isthmus. Though it occurs 
in Mexico, it does not seem to be at all common in that country; M. Boucard 
found it at Playa Vicente and Sumichrast at Uvero, near Cordova, Richardson on 
the eastern side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and Mrs. Herbert Smith at 
Teapa. It is absent from Northern Yucatan, but abundant in British Honduras 
and the forests of Vera Paz, where we had frequent opportunities of observing it. It 
is essentially a bird of the deep forest, never emerging into sunlight or the brushwood 
of an old clearing. It usually flies amongst the lower branches of the forest trees, 
but still a good way from the ground. Its habits are quick and spasmodic while in 
motion, and the very reverse when perched and at rest. A bird is observed to fly past 
overhead ; it alights on a bough, and in a moment assumes an attitude that would lead 
one to suppose it had not moved for an hour. When thus perched the glittering 
ereen of the upper plumage and breast is inconspicuous, but the brilliant red of the 
underparts is an object of mark against the dark foliage of the trees. Its cries are 
various, but harsh and discordant, none of them being so soft as the call-notes of the 
Quezal. Its food consists principally of ripe fruits, which are plucked whilst the bird 
is on the wing. Occasionally a caterpillar is added to its repast. Mr. Richmond, 
writing on birds observed by him on the Escondido river in Nicaragua, also says that 
this bird feeds largely on berries and fruit. The birds, while picking at the fruit, 
sometimes hang from the end of the branch, back downwards, with wings fluttering, at 
such times presenting a very striking appearance. Mr. Nutting, in his notes on the birds 
of La Palma, Costa Rica, says that he has never seen this species associating in flocks 
as others do, but that it is a rather silent bird, preferring the deep recesses of the 
tropical forests, its note being a kind of clucking noise hard to describe *. In the 
Museum Heineanum, Cabanis and Heine refer to Costa Rica specimens as smaller than 
those from Mexico, and suggest that the southern bird should be called Zroctes 
hoffmanni. Southern examples are certainly smaller, but we are not prepared to 
admit of their being specifically distinct on the score of a trifling difference in size. 
d. Rectrices laterales albo stricte transfasciate. 
14. Trogon clathratus. 
Trogon clathratus, Salv. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 75"; 1867, p.151*; 1870, p. 202°; Ibis, 1869, p. 316° ; 
1874, p.3829°; v. Frantz. J.f. Orn. 1869, p. 313°; Gould, Mon. Trog. ed. 2, t. 28%; Grant, 
Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 476°. 
Supra nitide viridis cyaneo tinctus, capite summo et uropygio vix saturatioribus; loris, capitis lateribus et 
mento nigris, pectore toto dorso concolore, abdomine et tectricibus subcaudalibus saturate coccineis ; alis 
nigricantibus, remigibus albo limbatis, tectricibus minutissime albo irroratis; caude rectricibus duabus 
mediis uropygio concoloribus nigro terminatis, rectricibus tribus utrinque externis stricte sed regulariter 
* In his notes on the birds of Los Sabalos, Nicaragua, Mr. Nutting gives a different account of this Trogon, 
speaking of its gregarious habits and of the bare orbital space being sky-blue—perhaps inadvertently refer- 
ring to another species (Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 407). 
