88 
THE TROGON FAMILY. 
The nest is constructed of cotton fibres and the down of plants, woven 
into a spherical form with a neatness and dexterity men may admire, 
but cannot imitate. The opening is lateral, and low down. 
To the same sub-family as the certhiola or pitpit belongs the azui-e 
csereba or guit-guit, which is also a denizen of the great forest-region 
of America. During the period of incubation the cserebas live in 
couples ; afterwards they form little companies of six to eight, which 
feed upon fruits and insects, and frolic among the higher foliage. Rest- 
less as humming-birds, they are constantly moving from branch to 
branch and tree to tree, and probing blossoms in search of insects and 
honied- juices. Their nests, made up of grass and fibres, are shaped 
something like a pear with a long stalk, and hang from the ends of 
slender twigs that seem all too frail for such a burden. The beauty of 
these birds is very striking, and suggests the question why creatures 
of such gorgeous plumage should have been located in the depths of 
impervious forests, remote from the usual haunts of men. Cei-tainly 
the fact tends to contradict the old belief that everything on earth was 
created for our v;se or delectation. The prevailing colours of the 
guit-guit are blue, and velvet black, and dark green ; these are so 
arranged as to contrast with one another very effectively. 
Touching upon beauty of plumage, we are reminded of the trogons, 
a family of birds almost peculiar to Tropical America. A few species 
are met with in the East and in South Africa, but the most splendid 
members of the family are confined to the forest-shades of the great 
river-basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco. They differ greatly in 
size, from the trogon viridis, whose body is scarcely larger than many of 
our English sparrows, to the calurus auriceps (or curuqud grande), which 
is described as twice the size of a jay. All have long spreading tails, 
and appear larger than they are from the denseness of their brilliant 
plumage, which shines with glorious tints of lustrous gi'een or azure, 
rosy red, delicate pink, and golden yellow. They are solitary birds ; 
and at early morn, or late in the afternoon, may be obsei'ved sitting 
singly or in pairs, some species upon the tallest trees, and others a few 
feet only from the ground, with expanded but drooping tails, and eyes 
