278 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



October 15, 1916, El Kio, October 4, 5, and 6, 1916, and May 18, 1919, 

 and in the vicinity of Constanza, September 25 and 26, 1916, and 

 April 9, 1919, including seven skins from this last locality. In 1927 

 Wetmore heard the strange call of the trogon regularly on May 17 

 and 18 while riding over the mountain trails from Jarabacoa to 

 Constanza by way of El Rio. Near Constanza from May 19 to 27 

 the birds were common and were encountered regularly. They called 

 among the high pines, the note resembling the syllables cuh kwao or 

 cuh kwao kioao, uttered rather slowly and carrying for considerable 

 distances through the clear air. Occasionally in some dense growth 

 of rain forest one came down curiously to a closer view of the hu- 

 man intruder, flying with a rapidly tilting flight resembling in 

 exaggerated type that of some long-tailed, short-winged sparrow, 

 and accompanied by a loud rattle of the rounded wings. When ex- 

 cited or curious these trogons may utter a low, rattling call, or at 

 times a complaining sound like the loudly pleading whine of a dog. 

 One pair on May 25 was interested in a hole fifteen feet from the 

 ground in a dead stub standing in the wet rain forest so located 

 that it could not be reached as the trunk was too decayed to bear 

 the weight of a climber. One bird rested near the opening and as 

 the site was under examination another came flipping noisily through 

 the wet leaves to join it in peering down at the intruder. 



The species seemingly is very rare in the forests on the Samana 

 Peninsula, where the natives do not know it, the only report for 

 this area being that of a marine who told Abbott that he had killed 

 two in the hills back of Sanchez while shooting pigeons. Wetmore 

 did not hear its characteristic calls during extended journeys afield 

 in this region. Danforth heard it near Bonao August 7, 1927, and 

 Ciferri forwarded skins to Moltoni taken at that locality at Lo 

 Slano December 11, Allaco December 15, and Puente Yuna Novem- 

 ber 11, 1927, as well as from Monte Viejo (1,500 m.) August 28, 1929. 



In Haiti the species has long been known. In Buffon in 1779 

 there is a considerable account of the bird from observations sup- 

 plied by Deshayes. It is said there that the birds breed in April 

 and again in August and September, depositing three or four eggs, 

 erroneously described as white, on a bed of decayed wood in a cavity 

 in a tree trunk. The young are said to be naked when hatched. 

 Deshayes says that his attempts to keep them in captivity were un- 

 successful. Some of his statements, notably where he says that 

 when the nest cavity chosen is not sufficiently big they enlarge it with 

 the strongly toothed bill need verification before they are implicitly 

 accepted. Levaillant, 8 according to Gould, 9 says that he had a speci- 



8 Hist. Nat. des Couroucous, 1806, pi. 13. Date taken from Sberborn, Index Anim., 

 pt. 1, 1922, p. lxxxi. 



"Mon. Trogonidae, 1838, without pagination. 



