480 TEOGONID^. 



Suborder COCCYGES HETERODACTYL^. 

 Pam. TROGONIDiE. 



Trogonidoe, Gould, Mon. Trog. ed. 3 (1858-1875) ; Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. Birds, Brit. Mus. xvii. 

 pp. 429 et seq. (1892). 



This remarkable family is well represented in Central America and Mexico ; for of 

 the known species, numbering in all about fifty, sixteen occur within our limits, and 

 of these not more than four pass beyond our region into the northern parts of South 

 America. But the forty-nine or fifty known species of Trogonidse spread far beyond 

 the limits of America, for three occur in tropical Africa and eighteen in the eastern 

 parts of tropical Asia and the great islands of Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. We thus 

 have thirty-one or thirty-two species belonging to the New World, at least half of them 

 Central American. 



The American genera are distinguished from those of the Old World. They are : — 

 Pharomacms with four species, one Central American ; Euptilotis with one exclusively 

 Mexican species ; Tmetotrogon and Prionotelus with one Hispaniolan and one Cuban 

 species respectively; and, lastly, Trogon with twenty-four species, of which fourteen 

 occur within our limits. Africa has Hapaloderma with three species to itself, and South- 

 eastern Asia and its islands Harjpactes with eleven species and Harpalarjpactes with two 

 species. An interesting and suggestive fact concerning the former distribution of the 

 Trogonidse is the discovery of fossil remains of a species ascribed to Trogon in the miocene 

 beds of Allier in France, described by Prof A. Milne-Edwards as Trogon gallicus (Ois. 

 Foss. de la France, ii. p. 395). These remains show that the family had a much wider 

 distribution in these early times, and was spread over a much less broken area. Since 

 then species have disappeared from large districts and the remainder left in the 

 isolated countries in which v?e now find them. 



Trogons are inhabitants of more or less heavily forested districts, but are by no means 

 restricted to the lowlying hotter country — Pharomacrus, Euptilotis, and several species 

 oi Trogon frequenting mountain -ranges to a height of at least 8000 or 9000 feet. 



The members of the family Trogonidse, being remarkably brilliant in the colours of 

 their plumage, early attracted the attention of Gould, and a monograph of it, finished 

 in 1838, formed the second of his great monographic works. A second edition, but 

 really a distinct volume, was commenced in 1858, and completed in 1875. Since then 

 we have in vol. xvii. of the Catalogue of Birds of the British Museum a complete 

 account of the Trogons in that institution from the pen of Mr. Ogilvie-Grant. As this 

 volume contains lists of nearly the whole of the specimens collected by us for this work 

 it has been of great use to us in preparing our account of the family which follows. 



