TROGONS. 



97 



their movements. At night they roost in thickly-packed companies, 

 hanging head downwards in a cluster in the most remarkable attitudes. 

 The cup-shaped nest is placed in the thickest bushes a few feet from 

 the ground, and the eggs are dull white, sometimes streaked with 

 orange or brown. 



Order XXVI. TROGONIFORMES. TROGON-TRIBE. 



The birds constituting this very distinct Order are chiefly remarkable [Case 63.] 

 on accoimt of the unique structure of the foot, in which the first and 

 second toes are directed backwards and the third and fourth forwards. 



Family TROGONID^E. TROGONS. 



The single family (Trogonida:} includes nearly fifty species, all birds 

 of bright plumage, some, such as the Quezal, being unsurpassed in 

 brilliancy of colouring. The various genera are distributed over Africa, 

 India, and the Indo-Malayan region, as well as Central and South 

 America, where the majority of the species occur. That the Trogons 

 are a very ancient type of bird-life and once inhabited the Palsearctic 

 region, is proved by the discovery of the fossil Trogon gallicus in the 

 Lower Miocene of France. Their plumage is of the softest description, 

 and the skin of the body so delicate and thin that it resembles damp 

 tissue-paper, and consequently these birds are the most difficult of all 

 to preserve. They frequent the thickest forest, and are of rather 

 sluggish habits, feeding chiefly on fruits and insects which are captured 

 on the wing. The eggs, which are white tinged with bluish or buff, 

 are deposited in a hole bored in some rotten stump or branch, and the 

 young when hatched are said to be naked. 



The most splendid member is the Quezal (Pharomacrus mocinno) 

 (1371), from the highlands of Central America, with the upper wing- 

 and tail-coverts greatly lengthened and forming brilliant metallic-green 

 ornamental plumes. This species has been adopted as the national 

 emblem of the Republic of Guatemala and figures on the postage- 

 stamps of that country. Of the other South American genera we 

 may mention the Cuban species Prionotelus temnurus (1374), with the 

 plumage alike in both sexes and the tail-feathers deeply excised, and 

 the many species belonging to the genus Trogon (1375-9), several of 

 which are shown. In Africa the group is represented by three species 

 belonging to the genus Hapaloderma (1380), and in the Indo-Malayan 

 region by Harpactes (1381-3), and Hapalarpactes (1384). 



