and used as an article of food; how few, however, of the collections of Europe possess examples, and how 
rarely is it seen among the skins of birds which are tardily sent from its native country! 
In the first edition of this Monograph I observed, “ Upon looking at the markings of the wing, we cannot 
fail to be struck with their resemblance to those on the same part of several of the Woodpeckers ; the 
peculiar termination of the tail also, together with its more attenuated bill, are features equally conspicuous, 
yet these must be considered as relations of analogy and not of affinity.” Still, if my memory serves me cor¬ 
rectly, I have been informed that the bird sometimes clings to the boles of trees in the manner represented 
by one of the reduced figures in the accompanying Plate; as, however, I cannot give my authority for this 
remark, it must be received with a degree of doubt; at the same time the structure of its tail-feathers would 
almost induce the belief that it, at least occasionally, indulges in such a habit. I give below all the infor¬ 
mation that has been published respecting this species, and only regret that neither Duke Paul Wilhelm von 
Wiirttemberg, nor Senor Ramon de la Sagra states if there be or be not any difference in the colouring of 
the sexes, a point I have not been able to determine from the examination of specimens; neither do they 
give any information respecting the nidification &c. 
In the zweiten Bandes zweites Heft of the ‘ Naumannia ’ for 1852, p. 51, Dr. G. Hartlaub says, “ In the year 
1824, the Duke Paul Wilhelm von Wiirttemberg brought the first specimen of Trogon temnurus of Temminck 
to Europe. The Duke says, ‘ I then proposed for it the name of Temnurus silens , but was dissuaded from 
splitting the genus Trogon, It is a stupid bird, is called Serpentaro by the Creoles, allows people to get 
nearer to it than the Arriero (Saurothera Merlini), sits for days lazily on the branches of low trees, and 
utters a melancholy sound.’” 
M. Ramon de la Sagra, in his ‘ Histoire Physique, Politique et Naturelle de file de Cuba,’ informs us 
that “ this Trogon, one of the most brilliant members of its family, has only yet been met with in the island 
of Cuba, of which it is not the least beautiful ornament. It is very common in the woods, its favourite place 
of abode; and there in the evening, but especially in the morning, its plaintive song may be heard repeated 
at lengthened intervals. The first portion of the note is higher and louder than the remainder, and is most 
readily imitated with a horn. It is this habit of uttering its song at the commencement and the close of 
day that has induced the Guaranis of Paraguay to say, in reference to another species, that it cries in the 
morning for the sun to rise, and in the evening because it is setting. Dwelling solitarily in the large woods, 
it perches principally on the lower branches of the trees, and there remains immoveable for hours together, 
apparently asleep, or at least indifferent to what is going on around it; it is therefore easily shot, and manv 
are killed for the table, its flesh being well flavoured. It lives solely on small seeds, a kind of food appa¬ 
rently incompatible with the form of the bill, which would seem to be better adapted for an insectivorous 
than a granivorous diet. Its native name, in Cuba, is Tocororo .” 
The front figure represents the bird of the size of life; the fine palm to the fruit of which it is clinging is 
the Astrocaryum rostra turn. 
