348 



Bird - Lore 



Every student in the tropics hopes he may soon meet with Trogons, at 

 once the most beautiful and the most mysterious of all the varied tropical birds. 

 Nothing could exceed the richness of their contrasting blood-red underparts, 



white and black tails, 

 and resplendent 

 emerald - green heads 

 and backs. The large 

 Pharomacrus Trogons, 

 of which the famed 

 Quetzal is a type, 

 with their delicate yet 

 richly gorgeous and 

 pendulous mantle of 

 feathers, are, for 

 sheer beauty, among 

 Nature's truly great 

 triumphs, and cannot 

 fail to force deep ap- 

 preciation from the 

 most calloused or 

 mercenary collector. 

 P. antisianus has a 

 loud, rolling call, which 

 I put in my notes as 

 Whee 00, corre o, done 

 in a round, velvety 

 whistle. When, after 

 quite a long time spent 

 in imitating the un- 

 known note, in the 

 soggy tree-fern forest 

 at the ridge of the 

 coast Andes, this 

 magnificent ruby and 

 emerald creature came 

 swinging toward me in 

 deeply undulating waves and perched alertly in full sight not far away, I found 

 it hard to breathe, so great was my excitement and joy. We never found it a 

 common bird and only three were seen in all our travel in Columbia. 



A close congener of antisianus, the Golden-headed Trogon, fails in elegance 

 before this distinguished beauty, though a marvel, nevertheless. Its notes are 

 more commonplace, too, being merely booming hoots, not very loud but quite 

 pervasive. The little banded Trogons, with pink breasts, as well as the yellow- 



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MOTMOT 



