VI 



TROGONIDAE 



441 



grey or ash-colour, the abdomen being buff. Fine crests add to the 

 general appearance. C. macrurus is remarkable for a tuft of blue 

 feathers on each side of the nape ; C. leucocephalus has a white 

 head ; C. leucotis white ear-coverts ; C. nigricollis a black forehead 

 and throat ; C. capensis two stripes of black on the back enclosing 

 one of white ; while that species and 0. castanonotus have maroon 

 rumps. The bare skin surrounding the eye is scarlet in C. erythro- 

 melon, C. macrurus, and C. capensis, and apparently bluish-grey 

 elsewhere. The legs are red in life, fading to buff after death. C, 

 striatus is very nearly uniform brown, C. erythromelon shews a 

 greenish tinge and has some buff on the head. The sexes are similar, 

 nor are the young very different. The length is from eleven to 

 fourteen inches. Kafirs consider these birds very good eating. 



Fam. XIV. Trogonidae. The Trogons are the sole tenants of 

 the Sub- Order TROGONES, a very distinct group of birds of brilliant 

 coloration the Quezal, as will be seen below, being the most 

 splendid of all. Their general aspect is somewhat heavy ; the neck 

 is abbreviated ; the bill, stoutest in Pharomacrus and most slender 

 in Euptilotis, is short and strong, with a wide bristly gape, and 

 a curved culmen terminating in a hook. The maxilla in these 

 genera, as well as in Narpactes and Hapalarpactes, has a terminal 

 notch, while both mandibles are more or less serrated in adults 

 of Trogon, Hapaloderma, Tmetotrogon, and Prionotelus. The foot 

 is comparatively small and weak, with the short metatarsus 

 feathered and somewhat scaly ; the second toe is reversed, a 

 " heterodactylous " arrangement (p. 10) unique among birds. The 

 moderate wing has ten primaries, and from eight to ten second- 

 aries ; the upper wing-coverts being elongated in Pharomacrus, 

 especially in the males. The long rectrices are twelve in number, 

 and are concave at the end with divergent tips in Prionotelus ; the 

 feathers, moreover, are often square at the extremity a noticeable 

 peculiarity in the Family ; while in the Quezal, Pharomacrus mo- 

 cinno, the male has enormously developed upper coverts to the tail, 

 which extend far beyond it, the two median being the longest ; in 

 its congeners and in females generally they equal the rectrices ; in 

 Euptilotis they are only half the length. The furcula is U-shaped ; 

 the tongue flat ; the syrinx tracheo-bronchial ; the aftershaft long ; 

 the nostrils are bristly ; the adults have no down ; and the nest- 

 lings are said to be naked for a short period. The large soft 



