THE GREEN TODY AND THE TROGONS. 327 



Worms, slugs, millipedes, and similar creatures also fall victims to 

 its voracity. 



In the coloring of its plumage it is truly a gorgeous bird. The gen- 

 eral tint of the head, neck, breast, and abdomen is that peculiar green- 

 blue termed " verditer " by artists, changing into pale green in certain 

 lights, and deepening into rich azure upon the shoulders. The back is 

 a warm chestnut-brown, changing to purple upon the upper tail-coverts. 

 The tail is of the same verditer hue as the head and neck, with the ex- 

 ception of the exterior feathers, which are furnished with black tips. 

 The quill feathers of the wings are of a dark blue-black, becoming 

 lighter at their edges, and the legs are covered with chestnut-brown 

 feathers like those of the back. These gorgeous hues are not attained 

 until the bird has passed through the moult of its second year. Both 

 male and female are nearly equally decorated, the latter being slightly 

 less brilliant than her mate. It is not a very large bird, scarcely ex- 

 ceeding a foot in total length. 



The curious little birds which are termed Todies bear a considerable 

 resemblance to the kingfishers, from which they may easily be distin- 

 guished by the flattened bill. 



The Todies are natives of tropical America, and are very conspicuous 

 among the brilliant-plumaged and strangely-shaped birds of that part 

 of the world. 



The Green Tody is a very small bird, being hardly larger than the 

 common wren of England, but yet very conspicuous on account of the 

 brilliant hues with which its plumage is decorated. The whole of the 

 upper surface is a light green; the flanks are rose-colored, deepening 

 into scarlet upon the throat and fading into a pale yellow upon the 

 abdomen and under the tail-coverts. 



TROGONS. 



For our systematic knowledge of the magnificent tribe of the Tro- 

 GONS we are now almost wholly indebted to Mr. Gould, who by the 

 most persevering labor and the most careful investigations has reduced 

 to order this most perplexing group of birds, and brought into one vol- 

 ume a mass of information that is rarely found in similar compass. 

 There are few groups of birds which are more attractive to the eye 

 than the Trogons, with all their glowing hues of carmine, orange, 

 green, and gold ; and few there are which presented greater diffi- 

 culties to the ornithologist until their various characteristics were 

 thoroughly sifted and compared together. The two sexes are so dif- 

 ferent from each other, both in the color and shape of the feathers, 

 that they would hardly be recognizable as belonging to a single species, 

 and even the young bird is very differently colored from his older relatives. 



