TBOGOHS 
(Troganiformes) 
TttOGONS (Malay; burong kasumba) are found in Central 
and South America, Africa, India, In do-China and Malaysia but 
althotig:h six species are found ni the Peninsula, some being 
relatively common, America is perhaps to be reg:arded as the 
headquarters of the g'roup for there the greatest number of 
species occurs, 
Trogons are birds of the dense jungles. Their plumage 
IS in many cases of extreme brilliancy. Fossil remains of 
these now tropica! birds have been found in France. 
The food consists largely of insects which are more often 
than not captured on the wing. The whitish eggs are laid 
in holes in rotten stumps or branches of trees. 
In disposition troi^ons are rather sluggish. On account 
of the extreme delicacy of their skin they are the despair of 
field collectors. The plumage is very dense and almost owl- 
likc in texture but the skin itself is about as stout as wet tissue 
paper and we have never yet succeeded in skinning a trogon 
without splitting the skin somewhere. If one successfully 
negotiates the nimp. then the skin is sure to split when the 
head is being turned back I 
In the Museum it is found that the wonderful orange or 
pink colours of the males are very fugitive and a few months 
in a strongly lighted exhibition gallery is quite sufficient to 
almost bleach a trogon beyond recognition. In fact the only 
convenient thing about the' trogon from the Museum point of 
view is that the feathers are often numerous enough and 
sufficiently long to cover up the disastrous work of the heavy- 
handed taxidermist I 
In the Raffles Museum there are recently collected speci- 
mens of two species of trogon from Pulau Ubin ; these are the 
Malayan trogon {Pyrotrogon diardi sumairanus) and the large 
Malayan black-headed trogon (P. kasumha) but if these are 
to be found in Singajjore now-a-days it is certainly onlv on very 
rare occasions and we have never seen an example on the island. 
1 rogons however are so thoroughly characteristic of the region 
that this book would have seemed incomplete without a passing 
reference. 
[145] 
