HAEPACTES FASCIATUS. 271 



Jaipur, and also at Rehrakole in 21° N. lat. ; and Mr. Blanford has obtained it further to the east in the 

 Godaveri valley. Rehrakole appears to be the most northerly locality to which its range has as yet been 

 traced. 



Habits. — The gloomy recesses of the forests this Trogon inhabits serve to bring out its beautiful plumage 

 in striking relief; nothing can form a greater contrast than its brilliantly-coloured breast does with the sombre 

 trunks and subdued foliage of the timber-jungles in the south of Ceylon. "Were it not for its shyness in taking 

 wing at the sight of man, it would seldom be observed ; for it loves to perch across some horizontal limb, many 

 feet from the ground, and there remains utterly motionless, with its head sunk between its shoulders, until the 

 sight of a passing moth rouses it into activity, and it launches itself out with a loud fluttering of its wings, 

 seizes the prey, and starts off to another branch not far distant from its first. It sits bolt upright, and when 

 viewed from behind appears to have no neck and but very little head ! The natives of India have named it 

 Kufni churi, from this singular appearance, as if dressed in a fakir's " kufni." I have usually found it in pairs, 

 and not solitary, although the two birds are seldom seen close together ; but if one be shot the other will 

 almost sure to be seen close at hand. It is this bird which makes the curious monosyllabic note chok, which 

 is often heard in the Ceylon forests ; for many years I was unable to identify this sound with any species, until 

 I saw a Trogon in the act of uttering it in some dense forest near Ambepussa. It has another purring call, 

 which it commonly utters ; but I am not aware that the Ceylonese birds have any querulous note like the 

 mewing of a cat. Mr. Bourdillon says that it gives this out continuously in the Travancore forests. In the 

 recesses of the timber-jungles in the south of Ceylon, considerable tracts of forest may be traversed without 

 seeing or hearing a single bird; as the naturalist is perhaps commenting on the dearth of bird-life, he suddenly 

 comes on a sociable little troop of his feathered friends, who seem to have collected together in these lonely 

 solitudes for companionship's sake: several Forest-Bulbuls {Criniger ictericus) and some Black-headed Bulbuls 

 (Rubiffida melanictera) are sure to be among the assembly, the rest of which is made up with one or two Azure 

 Flycatchers (Myiagra azurea) and a casual Pomatorhinus leisurely uttering its melodious call as it clings to 

 the mossy bark of some giant trunk, while, lastly, at a little distance from the sociable gathering, sits aloof a 

 solitary Trogon, as if it had come to see what was the matter, but scorned to associate with its lively neigh- 

 bours. Jerdon remarks that he has sometimes seen four or five of these birds together. 



The food of this species consists chiefly of coleopterous insects, bugs (Hemiptera), moths, &c, which it 

 catches on the wing like a Flycatcher; and hence its ordinary name with gentlemen in the Survey Department, 

 and others who frequent the jungle and have made its acquaintance. It is peculiar for the extraordinarily 

 delicate nature of its skin and consequent looseness of the body-feathers, which fall out in abundance on the 

 bird striking the ground when shot. It is on this account that the Trogon is the most difficult of all 

 Ceylonese species to preserve for the cabinet. 



I know nothing certain as to its nidification ; but a gentleman in the Survey Department assured me that 

 he found a nest with two young ones in a Kitool-palm during the month of May. It was situated in a hole 

 in the trunk of the palm which stood near his hut in the Three Korales, and the young were lying on the hard 

 wood of the nest-cavity. 



