306 THE TROGONS. 



Of solitary habits, the Trogons (or coroucui) frequent the 

 most secluded portions of dense forests, remote from the abodes 

 of man. For hours together they sit motionless on some 

 branch, uttering occasionally a plaintive melancholy cry, 

 especially while the female is brooding on her eggs. Indif- 

 ferent during the day to every object, listless or slumbering 

 on their perch, they take no notice of the presence of an in- 

 truder, and may indeed be often so closely approached as to 

 be knocked down by a stick ; the bright glare of the sun ob- 

 scures their sight, and they wait for evening, the dusk of twi- 

 light being their season of activity. 



Fruits, insects and their larvae, constitute their food. 

 Formed, most of them at least, for rapid but not protracted 

 flight, they watch from their perch the insects flitting by, and 

 dart after them with surprising velocity, returning after their 

 short chase to the same point of observation. Some, how- 

 ever, are almost exclusively frugivorous ; we allude more 

 especially to those whose flowing plumes impede the freedom 

 of their flight ; such seek for fruits and berries. Many species 

 are certainly migratory. M. Natterer observes, respecting 

 the Pavonine Trogon (trogon pavoninus), which inhabits, 

 during a certain season of the year, the high woods along 

 the upper part of the Amazon and Rio Negro, that he found 

 the contents of its stomach to consist principally of the fruit 

 of a certain species of palm, and that it arrives in those dis- 

 tricts when its favorite food is ripe, but that when the trees 

 no longer yield an adequate supply it retires to other districts. 



Like the parrots and woodpeckers, the Trogons breed in 

 the hollows of decayed trees, the eggs being deposited on a 

 bed of wood-dust, the work of insects ; they are three or four 

 in number, and white. The young, when first hatched, are 

 totally destitute of feathers, which do not begin to make their 

 appearance for two or three days ; and their head and beak 

 appear to be disproportionately large. They are said to rear 

 two broods in the year. 



Azara, speaking of the Surucua Trogon, a native of Para- 

 guay and the Brazils, informs us that it is seen only in the 



