TROGON AMBIGUUS, Gould. 
♦ 
Doubtful Trog’on. 
Specific Character. 
Mas.— Facie nigra; pectore et corpore supra aureo-viridibus ; humeris tectricibusque alarum ornate 
cinereis et fusco irroratis; rectricibus tribus externis utrinque albis, crebre fuscescenti-nigro 
punctis; rectricibus quatuor intermediis fuscescenti-rujis cum apicibus nigris. 
Male. —Face and throat black ; chest, sides and back of the neck, and upper surface rich 
golden bronze, gradually passing into golden green on the lower part of the hack ; primaries 
black, margined externally with white; wing-coverts and secondaries grey, finely marked 
with transverse zigzag lines of black ; two centre tail-feathers rich fiery-red bronze, broadly 
tipped with black ; the two next on each side blackish brown, broadly tipped with black ; 
three outer feathers on each side brownish black at the base and white at the tip, the 
intermediate portion being white, minutely dotted or freckled with black, the freckles 
assuming the form of a distinct but irregular narrow bar where the freckling terminates ; 
breast and under surface rich scarlet, separated from the green of the throat by a crescent 
of white ; tarsi slate-grey, gartered below with scarlet and white ; bill bright yellow. 
Total length, 11 inches ; bill, i; wing, 5 ; tail , 64 .. 
Female. —A mark of white behind the eye and on the ear-coverts ; head, upper surface and chest 
light olivaceous brown ; primaries brown, margined with white; wing-coverts and outer 
webs of the secondaries light olivaceous brown, minutely rayed with black ; two centre tail- 
feathers cinnamon-brown, tipped with black; the two next on each side brown, margined 
with cinnamon-brown; three lateral feathers brown at the base, crossed on their margins 
and near the extremity with irregular freckled bands of brown on a white ground; upper 
part of the breast pale brown; lower part of the abdomen and under tail-coverts scarlet, 
separated from the brown by a band of greyish white ; hill yellow. 
Trogon ambiguus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part iii. p. 30.—lb. Mon. of Trogons, pi. 4.— 
Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 69, Trogon, sp. 11.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., 
p. 149, Trogon, sp. 11. 
I have ventured to separate this bird from the Trogon elegans, to which it closely assimilates. The points 
of difference consist in the obscure and pale, hut finely-dotted markings of the outer tail-feathers, in 
opposition to the strong and well-defined black bars on the same part in Trog. elegans, while at the same 
time the centre of the wing is much more finely and minutely barred in the former than in the latter. Had 
I seen only a single individual of each of these birds, I might have taken a different view of the subject; 
but my comparisons having been made upon several individuals, I feel but little hesitation in assigning 
to the present bird, at least provisionally, the rank of a distinct species. 
The localities in which these two birds appear to be indigenous are distinctly separated from each other, 
—all the examples I have seen of Trogon ambiguus having been exclusively received from the northern and 
western States of Mexico, while the Trogon elegans is strictly limited to the southern and Guatemala. 
A figure and description of this bird appeared in the first edition of this monograph, and after a lapse of 
twenty years I am unable to add any further information respecting it, save that I have in the interval 
received other specimens from San Bias. Besides the differences pointed out above, I observe that the 
tail is fully an inch shorter than that of T. elegans, and that the T. ambiguus is altogether smaller 
than that species. Another point of difference also occurs in the bright fiery bronze colouring of the two 
middle tail-feathers, which cannot be excelled in richness, and which is but slightly indicated in T. elegans, 
the corresponding feathers in that bird having only a wash of this fine tint. 
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size. 
