TROCHILI—TROGON 987 



TROCHILI, the Twelfth Order of Birds in Wagler's classifica- 

 tion of 1830 {Nat. Syst. d. Amphib. u. s. w. p. 81) and frequently- 

 used since by those who would raise the Family Trochilidse (Hum- 

 ming-bird) to higher rank. 



TROGON/ a word apparently first used in English"^ by Shaw 

 (3Ius. Lever, p. 177) in 1792, and for many years accepted as the 

 name of certain birds forming the Family Trogonidx of ornithology, 

 the species Trogon curucui of Linnaeus being its type.'^ 



The Trogons are birds of moderate size : the smallest is hardly 

 bigger than a Thrush and the largest less bulky than a Crow. In 

 most of them the bill is very wide at the gape, which is invariably 

 beset by recurved bristles. They seize most of their food, whether 

 caterpillars or fruits, on the wing, though their alar power is not 

 exceptionally great, their flight being described as short, rapid and 

 spasmodic. Their feet are weak and of a unique structure, the 

 second toe being reverted. The plumage is very remarkable and 

 characteristic. There is not a species which has not beauty be- 

 yond most birds, and the glory of the group culminates in the 

 QuEZAL (p. 758). But in others golden-green and steely-blue, 

 rich crimson ^ and tender pink, yellow varying from crimson to 

 amber, vie with one another in vivid coloration, or contrasted, as 

 happens in many species, with a warm tawny or a sombre slaty- 

 grey — to say nothing of the delicate freckling of black and white, 

 as minute as the marblings of a moth's wing — the whole set off 

 by bands of white, producing an eff'ect hardly equalled in any 

 group. The plumage is further remarkable for the large size of 

 its contour-feathers, which are extremely soft and so loosely seated 

 as to come off in scores at a touch, and there is no down. The 

 tail is generally a very characteristic feature, the rectrices, though 

 in some cases pointed, being often curiously squared at the tip, 



^ Trogonem (the oblique case) occurs in Pliny {K. JV. x. 16) as the name of 

 a bird of which he knew nothing, save that it was mentioned by Hylas, an 

 augur, whose work is lost ; but some would read Trygonem (Turtle-Dove). In 

 1752 Mohring {Av. Gen. p. 85) applied the name to the " Curucui " (pronounced 

 " Suruqua " /c?e Bates, Nat. Amaz. i. p. 254) of Marcgrave {Hist. Nat. Brasil. 

 p. 211), who described and figured it in 1648 recognizably. In 1760 Brissou 

 {Orn. iv. p. 164) adopted Trogon as a generic term, and, Linnaeus having followed 

 his example, it has since been universally accepted. 



^ Pennant in 1769 {Ind. Zool. p. 4) anglicized the word Curucui as Couroucou. 



^ Since doubts exist as to whether this is that which was subsequently called 

 by Vieillot T. collaris or the T. melanurus of Swainson, though evidence is in 

 favour of the former (Cabanis, Mus. Hein. iv. p. 117, and Finsch, Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1870, p. 559), several writers have dropped the Linnsean specific term. 



* M. Anatole Bogdanoflf {Comptes Rendus, 2 Nov. 1857, xlv. pp. 688-690) 

 determined the red pigment of the feathers of Pharomacrus auriceps to be a sub 

 stance which he called " zooxanthine." (See Colour, p. 95.) 



