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TROGONIDA. — GENERAL CHARACTERS. 155 
perplexed i in what natural family to arrange them. M. 
Cuvier, in placing themnear to the puff-birds ( Tamatia), 
seems to have had some perception of what we believe to 
be their true station in nature, although both these groups 
find a place among his climbing birds (Grimpeurs). M. 
Temminck adopts the same views. Mr. Vigors, in his 
“Natural Arrangement,” first placed the genus T'rogon 
between that of Crotophaga and Corythaix, with a mark 
of doubt, but subsequently he located the trogons near 
the parrots. The trogons are abundant in South 
America; and are, perhaps, one of the most extraordinary 
genera found in that continent. They are not climbing 
birds, nor are they in the least organised for that purpose: 
they live in the deepest and most gloomy shades during 
day, where they sit, almost motionless, on a dead branch: 
during the morning and evening they are more active ; 
at these times they go into the open partsof the forest, and, 
taking a shady station, dart upon winged insects, par- 
ticularly hard-coated beetles; at other times they feed 
upon fruits, especially on the rich purple berries of the 
different Melastome, at which they invariably dart, pre- 
cisely the same as if they were insects capable of getting 
away! The singular account of these birds given by 
our hunters first awakened our attention to them in 
their native regions, and these results have since been fully 
confirmed by the observations made on those species pe- 
culiar to Demerara by Mr. Waterton, a well known and 
observing field naturalist. Finally, the trogons, like the 
goatsuckers, have remarkably thin skins ; like them, they 
feed upon the wing ; the feet of both are so short and 
feeble, as scarcely to be of any other use than to rest the 
the body; the bill in both is remarkably short ; the 
plumage in both is soft and loose ; both have the mouth 
defended by strong bristles ; and both are most active 
during twilight. Here, then, is the point, if not of 
absolute junction, at least of the strongest affinity yet 
discovered, between the Caprimulgide and the Trogon- 
id@ ; and it is thus, as we conceive, that the circle of 
the Fissirostres is formed. We began with the goat- 
