TROGONS. 97 
their movements. At night they roost in thickly-packed companies, 
hanging head downwards in a cluster in the most remarkable attitudes. 
The cup-shaped nest is placed in the thickest bushes a few feet from 
the ground, and the eggs are dull white, sometimes streaked with 
orange or brown. 
Order XXVI. TROGONIFORMES. ‘Trocon-rr1Be. 
The birds constituting this very distinct Order are chiefly remarkable 
on account of the unique structure of the foot, in which the first and 
second toes are directed backwards and the third and fourth forwards, 
Family Trocontp™. Trogons. 
The single family (Zrogonide) includes nearly fifty species, all birds 
-of bright plumage, some, such as the Quezal, being unsurpassed in 
brillancy of colouring. ‘The various genera are distributed over Africa, 
India, and the Indo-Malayan region, as well as Central and South 
America, where the majority of the species occur. That the Trogons 
are a very ancient type of bird-life and once inhabited the Palzarctic 
region, 1s proved by the discovery of the fossil Trogon gallicus in the 
Lower Miocene of France. Their plumage is of the softest description, 
and the skin of the body so delicate and thin that it resembles damp 
tissue-paper, and consequently these birds are the most difficult of all 
to preserve. They frequent the thickest forest, and are of rather 
sluggish habits, feeding chiefly on fruits and insects which are captured 
on the wing. The eggs, which are white tinged with bluish or buff, 
are deposited in a hole bored in some rotten stump or branch, and the 
young when hatched are said to be naked. 
The most splendid member is the Quezal (Pharomacrus mocinno) 
(1365), from the highlands of Central America, with the upper wing- 
and tail-coverts greatly lengthened and forming brilliant metallic-green 
ornamental plumes. This species has been adopted as the national 
emblem of the Republic of Guatemala and figures on the postage- 
stamps of that country. Of the other South American genera we 
may mention the Cuban species Prionotelus temnurus (1368), with the 
plumage alike in both sexes and the tail-feathers deeply excised, and 
the many species belonging to the genus Trogon (1869-78), several of 
which are shown. In Africa the group is represented by three species 
belonging to the genus Hapaloderma (1874), and in the Indo-Malayan 
region by Harpactes (1815-11), and Hapalarpactes (1318). 
[Case 63, } 
