574 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. —PICARLE— TROGONES. 



found on a layer of fish-hones and scales. The eggs are oftenest 6 or 8 in numher, as said, 

 sometimes only 5, and again 12 or more may he found in a nest. Some large specimens are 

 nearly 1.50, and some runts only 1.20 in length; but the hreadth is more constant, and the 

 shape thus extremely variable. Cock-burrows are sometimes made by the $ , and the holes 

 of Swallows are sometimes enlarged to suit the Kingfisher. 



(Subgenus Chloroceryle.) 



C. amerioa'na septentriona'lis. (Lat. American. 

 Lat. Northern, with reference to the northerly subspe- 

 cies of the tropical American stock form.) Texan 

 Green Kingfisher. Adult 9 '■ Entire upper parts 

 dark glossy-green, with bronze lustre, the bases of 

 nearly all the feathers suovA-y-wliite, which appears 

 sometimes upon the surface ; crown, scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts superficially sprinkled with white. Wing- 

 quills dusky on inner webs, green on the outer, both 

 marked in regular double series with pairs of white 

 spots, scallops, or bars. Central tail-feathers dark 

 green, usually touched with white along the edges, the 

 others green with white bars becoming confluent at the 

 bases of the feathers, where forming white spaces more 

 extensive than the green portion. Cervical collar and 

 entire under parts white; breast with a dark green 

 band, the belly, sides, and crissum spotted with glossy- 

 green. Bill black, usually light at base below ; feet 

 dark. Adult ^ differs in having no green spots across 

 belly and rufous instead of green breast-band. Young ^ 

 has rusty tinge ou breast. Length about 8.00; wing 

 3.2.5-3.50; tail 2.50; bill 1.67-1.87; whole foot 1.00, 

 with relatively longer tarsus than in either of the fore- 

 gcjing. Valleys of the Lower Rio Grande and Lower 

 Colorado, and southward to Panama ; common and resi- 

 dent in some parts of Texas, where it breeds. I saw it in 

 Arizona on the Colorado, in 1865. Nesting substantially 

 as in C. alcyon; eggs 4-6, very thin and smooth, like 

 porcelain, rounded oval, 0.90-1.00 X 0.70-0.75. This 

 is C. americana and C. cabanisi of writers referring to 

 the northern form, wliich seems to difi'er mainly in the 

 larger bill. C. americana cabanisi of former eds. of the 

 Key, 1872-90. C. cabanisi A. 0. U. List, 1st ed. 1886, 

 ]i. 209. C. americana septentrionalis Sharpe, Cat. B. 

 Brit. Mus. xvii, 1892, p. 134; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 

 1895, No. 391. 



Suborder TROGONES : Trogons. 

 Or HETERODACTYLI: see p. 541, for princi- 



Fig. 389. — r'ara.liN.. Tmi^on, or Quesal 

 (Phnromncrus mociniiu), (J, $. (From 

 Michelet.) 



pal analytical characters in comparison with other sub- 

 orders of Picarics. These birds are unique, not only in tlieir suborder but in the class Aves, in 

 the disposition of the digits and their flexor tendons. They are yoke-toed, having the toes 



