434 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



Wallace remarks : "Remains of Troffonbave been found in the miocene deposits of 



France; and we are thus able to understand the existing distribution of the family. 



j 



At that exceptionally mild period in the northern hemisphere, these birds may have 

 ranged over all Europe and North America; but, as the climate became more severe, 

 they gradually became restricted to the tropical regions, where alone a sufficiency of 

 fruit and insect food is found all the year round." 



We are not aware that there is any important structural character by which the 

 trogons inhabiting the eastern hemisphere can be separated from those living in the 

 western half of the globe. A considerable difference in their habits, however, is 

 reported, inasmuch as the American species are said to be chiefly fruit-eaters, Avhile 

 Wallace informs us that the Old World forms subsist almost exclusively on insects. 

 Very remarkable is the way by which the former are known to obtain the fruits. 

 Their feet are comparatively small and weak, and, although in a measure ' yoke- 

 toed,' they are entirely iinfit for climbing; the trogon, therefore, darts from its perch 

 after the fruit, like a flycatcher after an insect, seizes it while on the wing, and 

 returns again to its perch. Such is also the habit of the most brilliant, most exquisite, 

 and most celebrated of all the trogons, the quesdl, according to Mr. Osbert Salvin's 

 account. The quesal is only to be found in Central America, where it is represented 

 by two but slightly differentiated forms, one in Costa Rica, the other, the more bril- 

 liant one of the two, in Guatemala, where it has been chosen for the national emblem. 

 Imagine a bird of the size of a magpie, and with the splendor of a humming-bird or a 

 sun-bird, and you may have an idea of the magnificent Pharomacrus mocinno. The 

 whole upper surface, breast, neck, and head, including the curious rounded and com- 

 pressed crest, are rich golden green, and so are the smaller wing-coverts, some of 

 which are lengthened into gracefully drooping plumes, overhanging the wing; four 

 upper tail-coverts, of a similarly brilliant green, are enormously lengthened, especially 

 the two central ones, which in perfect specimens may reach a length of nearly three 

 feet; the true tail-feathei % s are black and white, and the posterior part of the under 

 side is rich vermilion inclining to crimson. Only the males are adorned with the long 

 floating train, the females, as in most trogons, being much plainer. 



Regretting that want of space forbids us to reprint the whole of Mr. Salvin's 

 account of his ' quesal-shooting in Vera Paz,' we take the liberty to make a few extracts 

 bearing directly on the habits of this remarkable bird : 



"My companions are ahead, and I am just balancing myself along the last trunk, 

 when Filipe comes back to say that they have heard a quesal. Of course, being 

 especially anxious to watch as well as to shoot one of these birds myself, I immedi- 

 ately hurry to the spot. I have not to wait long. A distant clattering note indicates 

 that the bird is on the wing. He settles a splendid male on a bough of a tree 

 not seventy yards from where we are hidden. It sits almost motionless on its perch, 

 the body remaining in the same position, the head only moving slowly from side to 

 side. The tail does not hang quite perpendicularly, the angle between the true tail 

 and the vertical being perhaps as much as fifteen or twenty degrees. The tail is 

 occasionally jerked open and closed again, and now and then slightly raised, causing 

 the long tail-coverts to vibrate gracefully. I have not seen all. A ripe fruit catches 

 the quesal's eye, and he darts from his perch, hovers for a moment, plucks the berry, 

 and returns to his former position. This is done with a degree of elegance that defies 

 description. A low whistle from Cipriano calls the bird nearer, and a moment after- 

 wards it is in my hand, the first quesal I have seen and shot. 



