JACAMARS, PARROTS, AND TROGONS. 45 



glancing my eye upward, I saw the gleam of warm 

 carmine and made out the figure of a bird sitting on 

 a branch. He fell a victim to his curiosity, and 

 others also, who came about in numbers, giving me 

 a good chance to study their motions. 



They are very inquisitive birds, and can be at- 

 tracted by imitating their whistles at any time, an- 

 swering promptly until they are near the person call- 

 ing them, when they do not fly away, but sometimes 

 sit still, stupidly staring. 



Their note is in four distinct sentences — "koo- 

 koo-koo-koo" — their flights are short and frequent, 

 and, from the softness of their plumage, silent and 

 spiritlike are their approaches. The trogons are pe- 

 culiar chiefly to the tropical Americas, the most 

 beautiful of the family being found in Mexico and 

 Central America — the Trogon resplendens — the Quet- 

 zal of the Aztecs, or the royal bird of the Monte- 

 zumas. 



The species found in Tobago is the Trogon co- 

 laris^ a very beautiful bird, and one much sought 

 after by the hunters for the millinery markets. The 

 male is ten inches in length, and fifteen across his 

 wings, has a yellow bill, small black feet, dark eye, 

 pink eyelid, with a bare space of white beneath the 

 lower lid. The whole under surface of his body is 

 rich carmine, with a crescent of white across the 

 breast, and beneath is a gorget of green. The upper 

 parts are a golden green, and the entire aspect of the 

 bird in the woods is that of a creature especially fitted 

 for glowing and tropical surroundings. The female 



