THE RESPLENDENT TROGON. 279 
is a light green, the flanks are rose-coloured, deepening into scarlet upon the 
throat and fading into a pale yellow upon the abdomen and under the tail- 
coverts, 
TROGONS. 
FOR our systematic knowledge of the magnificent tribe of the TROGONS 
we are now almost wholly indebted to Mr. Gould, who by the most persever- 
ing labour and the most careful investigations has reduced to order this most 
perplexing group of birds, and brought into one volume a mass of informa- 
tion that is rarely found in similar compass. There are few groups of birds 
which are more attractive to 
the eye than the Trogons, 
with all their glowing hues 
of carmine, orange, green, 
and gold; and few there 
_ are which presented greater 
difficulties to the ornitho- 
logist until their various cha- 
racteristics were thoroughly 
sifted and compared together. 
The two sexes are so different 
from each other, both in 
the colour and shape of the 
feathers, that they would 
hardly be recognizable as be- 
longing to a single species, 
and even the young bird is 
very differently coloured from 
his older relatives. 
These beautiful birds are 
found in the Old and the 
New Worlds, those which 
inhabit the latter locality 
being easily distinguishable 
by their deeply-barred tails. 
Those of the Old World are RESPLENDENT TROGON.—(Calurus resplendens.) 
generally found in Ceylon, 
Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, while only a single species, the Narina Trogon, 
is as yet known to inhabit Africa. 
The Trogons are mostly silent birds, the only cry used being that of the 
male during the season of pairing. It is not a very agreeable sound, being 
of a sombre and-melancholy cast, and thought to resemble the word “ courou- 
courou.” 
Several of the Trogons are distinguished from their relatives by the 
- length and downy looseness of many of the feathers, more especially the 
lance-shaped feathers of the shoulders and the elongated upper tail-coverts. 
On account of this structure of the plumage, they are gathered into a 
separate genus under the appropriate title of Calurus, or Beautiful-tailed 
Trogons. 
The RESPLENDENT TROGON is a native of Central America, and was in 
former days one of the most honoured by the ancient Mexican monarchs, 
who assumed the sole right of wearing the long plumes, and permitted none 
but the members of the royal family to decorate themselves with the flowing 
feathers of this beautiful bird, 
