TROGON PUELLA, Gould . 
llayed-tail Trogon. 
Specific Character. 
Mas .—Corpore subtiis coccineo ; 
caudd nigra ; 
rectricibus tribus externis crebre albo fasciatis. 
Male. —Lores, ear-coverts and throat black ; head, all the upper surface and chest green ; wings 
black, the coverts and secondaries freckled with white, and the primaries with a narrow 
line of white along the basal portion of their outer webs ; all the under surface scarlet, 
separated from the green of the chest by a semilunar mark of white; two middle tail- 
feathers deep yellowish green ; the two next on each side yellowish green on their outer, 
and black on their inner webs, the whole six tipped with black ; three outer feathers on 
each side black, crossed by numerous narrow bars of, and narrowly tipped with, white ; 
thighs black ; bill orange ; irides reddish brown ; eyelash light coral-red ; feet dark grey. 
Total length, lOi inches ; bill, i ; wing, 5 i ; tail, 6. 
Female. —Face and throat dull black; chest and all the upper surface olive-brown, becoming 
richer or more yellow on the upper tail-coverts; wings blackish brown ; the primaries 
margined externally with white ; wing-coverts and secondaries brown, freckled with black; 
under surface light scarlet, separated from the brown of the chest by a semilunar mark of 
white; two centre tail-feathers rich brown; the two next on each side rich brown on their 
outer and black on their inner webs, all six tipped with black; three outer feathers on each 
side blackish brown, minutely dotted on their outer webs, and on a portion of their inner 
webs near the tip, with blackish brown on a greyish white ground, these dottings set so 
thickly as to form a bar near the tip, the extremity of which is greyish white; under man¬ 
dible, and base of the upper, yellow ; culmen brownish black. 
Trogon puella, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xiii. p. 18.—Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, 
vol. i. p. 70, Trogon, sp. 24.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 149, Trogon, sp. 8. 
—-- Xalapensis, DuBus, Esq. Orn. pi. 5. 
This well-marked Trogon is an inhabitant of Central America, particularly the countries of Honduras 
and Guatemala; and that it must be common in the Vera Paz Mountains, is evidenced by the numbers 
which have been sent to this country by George U. Skinner, Esq. The only figure of this bird with which 
I am acquainted is that published by the Baron DuBus in his “ Esquisses Ornithologiques ” under the name 
of Trogon Xalapensis , from which appellation it would appear that it extends its range to Mexico; but per¬ 
sonally I have not received or seen examples from that country. 
The Trogon puella is rendered one of the most conspicuous members of its family by the markings of the 
tail, which consist of a series of narrow cross-bars of white on a jet-black ground, extending throughout 
the apical portion of each of the three outer tail-feathers; the usual terminal broad band of white being 
absent, or but slightly indicated by the last white bar being a trifle broader than the rest. The female 
diffeis very much from the male, not only in having those parts of her plumage brown which are green in 
the other sex, but also in the total absence of bars on the three outer tail-feathers, those feathers being 
merely clouded or sprinkled with extremely small dots of dark brown on a light greyish white ground, with 
a narrow bar of black succeeded by another of white at the tip. 
The Plate represents both sexes of the natural size. 
