in much plainer garb than are the bril- 

 liantly attired cocks. 



Quezal, sometimes spelled Quesal, is 

 the Spanish-American name for the Re- 

 splendent Trogon. The word is an 

 abbreviation of the Aztec word Quet- 

 zal-tototl, a compound word of very 

 appropriate meaning when applied to 

 this Trogon. Quetzal, sometimes writ- 

 ten Cuetzal refers to the elongated and 

 rich green feathers of the bird's plumage ; 

 tototl means fowl. Although known 

 some years before, the first scientific de- 

 termination of this Trogon seems to have 

 been that of the ornithologist Bonaparte 

 in the year 1826. It was given the tech- 



nical name by which it is . now known 

 in the year 1832, and its breeding habits 

 were not fully known until i860. Spe- 

 cimens of the Resplendent Trogon. had, 

 however, been taken to Europe very early 

 in the nineteenth century, for the species 

 was named from the study of a number 

 of specimens on exhibition in the palace 

 of the Retiro' near Madrid. Specimens 

 were also to be seen in the Edinburg 

 Museum at a very early date, and in the 

 sale of Bullock's Museum in 18 19, one 

 lot was calalogued as 'The Tail Feather 

 O'f a magnificent, undescribed Trogon." 

 This tail feather probably was one from 

 a Resplendent Trogon. 



PLEASURE AND PROFIT IN OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



A most delightful winter's pastime is 

 that of feeding the birds which call occa- 

 sionally — daily, if they find it profitable 

 to do so — ^in the trees and shrubbery about 

 our homes. It is a joy tO' the purveyor 

 and a highly appreciated favor to the 

 recipients of his bounty, especially in a 

 severe winter when their winter gran- 

 eries are snowed under for weeks or 

 months in succession. It is estimated 

 that many birds have died during the 

 last severe winter — died from starvation. 



It has been my habit for years to make 

 myself ready for callers early in the win- 

 ter. I want to be there to greet the first 

 comer, in order that I may be sure to 

 keep them all through the bitter months 

 of frost and snow. I hang out lumps of 

 suet in the back veranda, an inverted 

 ' butter-tub cover is hung high, out of the 

 reach of trespassing cats, and upon this 

 tray I place crumbs and Indian corn. 



I have had for boarders chickadees, 

 woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches 

 always, sometimes jays and an occa- 

 sional red-breasted nuthatch. One win- 

 ter jays were conspicuous, coming singly, 

 in pairs, and in half dozens — extremely 

 handsome in their showy uniforms of 

 blue, gray, black and white. They came 

 daily within a few feet of the veranda — I 

 scattered the com for them upon the 

 snow — and on one occasion a blue-coat 



stalked across the veranda and greedily 

 filled his mouth with the discarded ker- 

 nels of corn from which the chickadees 

 had eaten the life as only suited to the 

 needs of titmice. The manners of the 

 jays are certainly not above criticism, and 

 yet they proved highly entertaining. 

 Saucy and inquisitive, noisy and rude, 

 their voices sometimes harsh and rasp- 

 ing, they are also, amusing, original, ver- 

 satile, and their voices are capable of 

 sweet and ringing utterances. His com- 

 mon ''Yah- Yah !" is forgotten if not for- 

 given when you hear his musical bell- 

 like tones, clear and ringing in the crisp, 

 frosty air of a mid-winter morning. The 

 jay is a study of ever increasing interest 

 and new surprises. 



The woodpeckers ask only to be 

 allowed quietly and leisurely to satisfy 

 their appetites with suet and crumbs, 

 then drop from their clinging perch and 

 bound away on elastic wings to the 

 woodland home across the snow mantled 

 meadows. 



Nuthatches are the embodiment of 

 quaintness and grotesqueness, "wooden 

 birds" one called them. They easily per- 

 form all sorts of acrobatic antics, clinsr- 

 ing to the eaves head downwards, creep- 

 ing in every direction with the agility 

 of mice — "tree-mice" is no misnomer — 

 squatting and sprawling when on the 



