504 TEOGONID^. 



side of those countries north of Costa Rica, nor is it to be found in the more broken 

 and thinner forests of the central portion of the Isthmus. Though it occurs 

 in Mexico, it does not seem to be at all common in that country; M. Boucard 

 found it at Playa Vicente and Sumichrast at Uvero, near Cordova, Richardson on 

 the eastern side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and Mrs, Herbert Smith at 

 Teapa. It is absent from Northern Yucatan, but abundant in British Honduras 

 and the forests of Vera Paz, where we had frequent opportunities of observing it. It 

 is essentially a bird of the deep forest, never emerging into sunlight or the brushwood 

 of an old clearing. It usually flies amongst the lower branches of the forest trees, 

 but still a good way from the ground. Its habits are quick and spasmodic while in 

 motion, and the very reverse when perched and at rest. A bird is observed to fly past 

 overhead ; it alights on a bough, and in a moment assumes an attitude that would lead 

 one to suppose it had not moved for an hour. When thus perched the glittering 

 green of the upper plumage and breast is inconspicuous, but the brilliant red of the 

 underparts is an object of mark against the dark foliage of the trees. Its cries are 

 various, but harsh and discordant, none of them being so soft as the call-notes of the 

 Quezal. Its food consists principally of ripe fruits, which are plucked whilst the bird 

 is on the wing. Occasionally a caterpillar is added to its repast. Mr. Richmond, 

 writing on birds observed by him on the Escondido river in Nicaragua, also says that 

 this bird feeds largely on berries and fruit. The birds, while picking at the fruit, 

 sometimes hang from the end of the branch, back downwards, with wings fluttering, at 

 such times presenting a very striking appearance. Mr. Nutting, in his notes on the birds 

 of La Palma, Costa Rica, says that he has never seen this species associating in flocks 

 as others do, but that it is a rather silent bird, preferring the deep recesses of the 

 tropical forests, its note being a kind of clucking noise hard to describe *. In the 

 Museum Heineanum, Cabanis and Heine refer to Costa Rica specimens as smaller than 

 those from Mexico, and suggest that the southern bird should be called Troctes 

 hoffmanni. Southern examples are certainly smaller, but we are not prepared to 

 admit of their being specifically distinct on the score of a trifling difference in size. 



d, Bectrices laterales albo stride transfasciatcB. 



11, Trogon clathratus. 



Trngon clathratvs, Salv. P, Z. S. 1866, p. 75 '; 1867, p. 151 »; 1870, p. 202 '; Ibis, 1869, p. 316* ; 

 1874, p. 329 '; v. Frantz. J. f. Orn. 1869, p. 313 " ; Gould, Mon. Trog. ed. 2, t. 28 '' ; Grant, 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvii. p. 476 '. 



Supra nitide viridia cyaneo tinctus, capite snmmo et uropygio vix saturatioribus ; loris, capitis lateribus et 

 mento nigris, pectore toto dorso concolore, abdomine et tectricibus subcaudalibus saturate coccineis ; alis 

 nigricantibus, remigibus albo limbatis, tectricibns minntissime albo irroratis ; caudae rectricibus daabus 

 mediis uropygio concoloribus nigro tenninatis, rectricibus tribus utrinque extemis stricte sad regulariter 



* In his notes on the birds of Los Sabalos, Nicaragua, Mr. Nutting gives a different account of this Trogon, 

 speaking of its gregarious habits and of the bare orbital space being sky-blue — perhaps inadvertently refer- 

 ring to another species (Pr. U. S. Xat. ilus. vi. p. 407). 



