BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 731 
Family TROGONIDA. 
THE TROGONS. 
= Trogonidz Swanson, Fauna Bor.-Am., ii, 1831, 326.—Capanis, in Wiegmann’s 
Archiv fiir Naturg., 1847, pt. i, 347.—Bonaparte, Consp. Av., i, 1850, 148.— 
Capanis and Herne, Mus. Heine, iv, 1863, 154.—Carus, Handb. Zool., i, 
1868-75, 231.—SresneceEr, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 433.—FUERBRINGER, 
Unters. Morph. Syst. Vég., 1888, 1831. (And of authors generally.) 
= Trogonine SUNDEVALL, Av. Disp. Tent., ii, 1873, 84 (and of Bonaparte, Cabanis, 
and Cabanis and Heine, as cited above). 
=Trogontide (emendation) OBERHOLSER, Out]. Classif. N. Am. Birds, Sept., 
1905, 3. 
The following characters are additional to those given under Sub- 
order Heterodactyle: 
Bill short (much shorter than head), broad basally (triangular in 
vertical profile), the culmen strongly decurved and terminally more 
or less distinctly (but not conspicuously) uncinate; maxillary tomium 
usually more or less serrate subterminally (smooth in one American 
genus, Pharomachrus, and in most of the Old World forms); base of 
bill concealed by well-developed, curved, antrorse latero-frontal, 
pre-malar, and mental bristle-tipped feathers; feet weak, the tarsus 
much shorter than longest anterior toe, chiefly (sometimes entirely) 
feathered; anterior toes united for about the basal half; wing short, 
rounded, very concave beneath; primaries more or less falcate or 
subfalcate terminally, the tenth (outermost) decidedly shortest; 
secondaries short; tail longer than wing, composed of twelve broad 
and nearly truncate rectrices; plumage dense and soft, easily detached; 
colors bright, brilliantly metallic (green, golden, coppery, blue, or 
violet above) in adult males, the under parts of body pure red, orange, 
or yellow; young usually spotted and without bright colors; nest in 
holes of trees, stumps, etc.; eggs plain white or pale bluish. 
The Trogons are a well-marked group of Picarian birds, differing 
from all others in the conformation of the feet, the inner toe being 
reversed, or turned backward, instead of the outer, as is the case with 
all other birds which have the toes in pairs. 
They are forest birds, and therefore arboreal, passing their entire 
life among the trees, where they nest in natural cavities or those 
abandoned by parrots or the larger woodpeckers. They feed chiefly 
on fruits and insects, both of which they take while flying. As a 
group the Trogons are celebrated for their beauty of plumage, some 
of the species being among the most beautiful of birds, the magnifi- 
cent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno), of Guatemala, excelling even 
the famed Birds of Paradise in the gorgeous beauty of its plumage 
and exquisite grace of form. 
