TROGONS. 433 



formance with extreme interest, admitted that the sap-sucker, under circumstances, 

 may become an extremely injurious bird. Nevertheless, even this great offender is not 

 entirely without his good sides; for we have Mr. William Brewster's word for it that 

 " after the young have hatched it rises to the proud independence of a fly-catcher, 

 taking its prey on wing as unerringly as the best marksman of them all. From its 

 perch on the spire of some tall stub it makes a succession of rapid sorties after its 

 abundant victims, and then flies off to its nest with bill and mouth crammed full of 

 insects, principally large Diptera." 



The wrynecks (Jynghue) constitute a single genus (Jynx) of half a dozen species, 

 which all belong to the Old World, especially Africa, while they are entirely wanting 

 in Australia and America. They are rather small birds, with a wedge-shaped but not 

 angular bill, and the tongue extensile. The tail is rather long, slightly rounded, 

 consisting of twelve soft and rounded rectrices; the outer one on each side is very 

 short, however, as in the woodpecker, and completely hidden by the under tail- 

 coverts ; the first primary is also very short, exceedingly so in the Palaearctic species. 

 The tarsus is scutellated both in front and behind. The coloration is a beautiful and 

 intricate mixture of gray, buff, rusty black, and white, very difficult to describe, with 

 a dark longitudinal band along the middle of the back and adjoining part of the 

 neck, the African species with a large chestnut-brown patch on the throat and foreneck. 

 The wryneck or snake-bird (Jynx torquilla), the species depicted in our illustra- 

 tion, is a migratory bird, which in England arrives at the same time as the cuckoo ; 

 hence, it is also called the 'cuckoo's maid,' or 'cuckoo's mate.' The two first men- 

 tioned names are derived from a peculiar habit of twisting the neck with a slow, 

 undulatory movement, like that of a snake, turning the head back and closing its 

 eyes as in a fit, evidently with the intention of frightening its enemies. A captive 

 held in the hand will usually perform this trick, and, taking advantage of the specta- 

 tor's surprise at its strange behavior, suddenly escape. The wryneck's food consists 

 of insects, especially ants. It breeds in hollow trees, and lays white polished eggs. 

 Its cry is very much like that of the kestrel. 



The trogons (TROGONOIDE^E) are heterodactylous, that is, have the first and 

 second toes turned backwards ; no other birds are. The trogons are also heteropel- 

 mous (see fig. 171 D) ; no other birds are. These features alone are, consequently, 

 sufficient to distinguish the trogons from the other Picarians, but the chief characters 

 may be briefly summed up in order to indicate the relationship of these birds. Their 

 palate is desmognathous, and basipterygoids are present ; the sternum is four-notched 

 behind ; the myological formula is A X ; only the left carotid is developed ; caeca are 

 present, and the oil-gland is nude. The pterylosis is also in other respects very 

 passerine, especially in the distribution and form of the feather-tract, but the after- 

 shafts of the contour-feathers are very large ; the long tail consists of twelve rectrices, 

 the outer ones being graduated ; the first primary is short. Altogether the trogons 

 are rather peculiar, showing no special relationship to any other group of the present 

 order, a circumstance which explains the fact that by the different systematists they 

 have been associated with nearly all the groups of the Picaria3. 



The trogons form a very well circumscribed family, TROGONID^E, consisting of 

 about fifty species, inhabiting the tropical regions. They are rather numerous in the 

 Neotropical, less so in the Oriental region, and rare in Africa, and are, during the 

 present geological epoch, entirely unknown in the Nearctic, Palsearctic, and Aus- 

 tralian regions. This was quite otherwise during a previous period ; for, as Dr. 

 VOL. iv. 28 



