TROGON TEMMINCKII 
Temminck’s Trog*on. 
Specific Character. 
Male. Top of the head, throat, and chest black; a crescent-shaped band of white separates 
the chest from the breast, which, with the abdomen and vent, is scarlet, and from which 
extends a narrow band of the same colour round the nape of the neck ; back and upper 
tail-coverts yellowish brown; wings black, transversely rayed with fine lines of white 
rather thinly disposed ; two middle tail-feathers chestnut brown tipped with black, the 
two next on each side wholly black, the remainder black at the base and largely tipped 
with white ; naked skin round the eyes fine blue, which extends over nearly the whole of 
the bill, becoming darker at the tip ; feet brown, 
Female. Differs from the male in being destitute of the nuchal and pectoral bands, in the head 
and throat being dark brown inclining to grey instead of being wholly black, in the 
breast being sandy brown, and in the markings of the wings being brown instead of 
white ; in the remainder of the plumage she resembles the male, except that the colours 
are more obscure. 
Total length, about 12 inches; -wing, 6i; tail, 6i. 
Trogon TemmincJcii. Gould, Proceedings of Zook Soc., Part III. 
— fasciatus. Temm., PI. Cob, 321. 
After a careful examination I have been induced to differ from the opinion of my friend M. Temminck, who 
considers the present bird as identical with a species originally described by Forster and Pennant under 
the name of Trogon fasciatus : the confusion appears to have been heightened by Dr. Latham, who in the 
second edition of his “General History of Birds” has illustrated the original description of Forster and 
Pennant by a drawing of a bird nearly allied to, if not identical with, my Trog. erythrocephalus. 
Having examined the drawing in the British Museum, which formed the subject of the original fasciatus, 
I have no hesitation in stating it to be quite distinct from the present species, which consequently demands 
for Itself a peculiar specific title ; and as it was first figured in that magnificent work the “ Planches Coloriees 
des Oiseaux” of M. Temminck, I have thought it due to the author to name it after him, although in so doing 
I am departing from the rule I generally observe in nomenclature : at the same time I may mention that the 
difficulty which attends the finding an appropriate specific title for a bird by which it may be distinguished 
from all its congeners is very great ; for it is scarcely safe to name it after the colour or character of the 
markings, as in most groups, and especially in the present one, so great a similarity exists that it is almost 
impossible to find a term sufficiently significant : the crescent-shaped band on the chest, the transverse 
markings of the wings, the barred, or plain tail, are all characters which belong to the family ; and if any 
peculiar feature exists, it is scarcely if ever confined to single species, but is generally the characteristic of a 
division or minor group of the family ; for Instance, before the discovery of the Trog. Diardii we knew of no 
other species than the present possessing the nuchal band which characterizes both of them ; and it is obvious 
that it would have been unsafe to take a specific title from this character in the first bird, as it would have 
been equally applicable to both, although in other respects they are quite different. 
I believe that this bird is not a native of Ceylon, but that Sumatra, Java, and probably Borneo, form its 
exclusive habitat. 
The Plate represents a male and female. 
