TROCHILI—TROGON 987 
TROCHILI, the Twelfth Order of Birds in Wagler’s classifica- 
tion of 1830 (Nat. Syst. d. Amphib. wu. s. w. p. 81) and frequently 
used since by those who would raise the Family Trochilide (HuM- 
MING-BIRD) to higher rank. 
TROGON,! a word apparently first used in English? by Shaw 
(Mus. 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 Linneus 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 effect 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, 
1 Trogonem (the oblique case) occurs in Pliny (H. NV. 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 Z7’rygonem (Turtle-Dove). In 
1752 Mohring (Av. Gen. p. 85) applied the name to the “‘ Curucui” (pronounced 
“Suruqua ” fide Bates, Nat. Amaz. i. p. 254) of Marcgrave (Hist. Nat. Brasil. 
p- 211), who described and figured it in 1648 recognizably. In 1760 Brisson 
(Orn. iv. p. 164) adopted Z’rogon as a generic term, and, Linnzus having followed 
his example, it has since been universally accepted. 
2 Pennant in 1769 (nd. Zool. p. 4) anglicized the word Curucul as Couroucou, 
3 Since doubts exist as to whether this is that which was subsequently called 
by Vieillot 7’. collaris or the 7. 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 Linnzan specific term. 
4M. Anatole Bogdanoff (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.) 
