the late Right Hon. George Canning ; after that statesman’s decease it passed into the hands of Mr. Lead- 
beater. The representation of this bird in the * Planches Coloriees ’ of M. Temminck is undoubtedly the 
first that was published; but the author evidently confounded it with a nearly allied species discovered in 
Brazil, and figured in the ‘ Avium Species Novae ’ &c. of Dr. Spix. 
The principal part of the above remarks was published in a former edition of this work nearly thirty years 
ago. In the long interval which has elapsed much additional information has been obtained respecting this 
fine bird; and I am greatly indebted to Mr. Osbert Salvin for the full and interesting statement subjoined, 
which I am sure will be read by every ornithologist with the greatest pleasure:—■ 
“In the ‘Ornithology’ of Francis Willughby (edited by John Ray, Fellow of the Royal Society, and 
published in the year 1678), page 385, will be found ‘ An Appendix to the History of Birds, containing such 
Birds as we suspect for fabulous, or such as are too briefly and inaccurately described to give us a full and 
sufficient knowledge of them, taken out of Franc. Hernandez especially.’ Under the heading ‘ Of fair- 
feathered Birds ’ Willughby translates from Hernandez as follows :—‘ Its feathers have made the Quetzal- 
tototl more precious than gold; and therefore it is called the bird of feathers. It hath a crest, and is in 
good part adorned with Peacocks’ feathers, of the bigness of a Pie or Pigeon, having a crooked yellow Bill, 
and Feet something yellow. The Tail is composed of very long feathers of a shining green and of a 
Peacock colour, like for shape to the leaves of Flouer-de-luce, and covered above with other black ones, but 
beneath and where they touch the Peacock-coloured or purple ones (which are in the middle) inclining to 
green, as if nature took care of the beauty of the middle feathers. The crest consists of shining and very 
beautiful feathers. The breast and neck underneath are covered with a red and shining plumage, and with 
a purple [pavonina], as is also the back and sides under the wings and the belly between the legs; but the 
feathers in this last place are of a fainter colour, slender, and soft. The feathers of the wings are very long, 
tinctured with a dilute green and ending in sharp points. The feathers growing on the shoulders are green, 
but black underneath ; but those between the wings are sometimes crooked and of the colour of the claws. 
The feathers of this bird are highly esteemed among the Indians, and preferred even before gold itself—the 
longer ones for crests and other ornaments, both of the head and whole body, both for War and Peace, but 
the rest for setting in feather-works and composing the figures of saints and other things, which they are so 
skilful in doing as not to fall short of the most artificial pictures drawn in colours. For this purpose they 
also mingle and weave in together with these the feathers of the Humming Bird. These birds live in the 
province of Tocolotlan, beyond Quantemallam , towards Honduras, where great care is taken that no man kill 
them. Only it is lawful to pluck off their feathers, and so let them go naked; yet not for all men 
indifferently, but only for the lords and proprietors of them ; for they descend to the heirs as rich 
possessions. Francisco Hernandez, in some pretermitted annotations, adds concerning the taking these birds 
some things worth the knowing. The fowlers (saith he) betake themselves to the mountains, and, there 
hiding themselves in small cottages, scatter up and down boiled Indian wheat, and prick down in the 
ground many rods besmeared with birdlime, wherewith the birds entangled become their prey. They fly 
in flocks among trees, on which they are wont to sit, making no unpleasant noise with their whistling 
and singing in consort. They have by the instinct of nature such knowledge of their riches that, once 
sticking to the birdlime, they remain still and quiet, not struggling at all, that they may not mar or 
injure their feathers. The beauty whereof they are so in love with that they choose rather to be taken 
and killed than, by endeavouring to get their liberty, do any thing that may deface or prejudice them. 
They are said to pick holes in trees and therein to build and breed up their young. They feed upon worms 
and certain wild Pinnae of that sort which Mexicans are wont to call Matzatli. They love the open air, 
nor hath it been yet found that ever they would be kept tame or brought up in houses. They make a 
noise not much unlike Parrots, but they have a cheerful and pleasant whistle and they sing thrice a day, 
to wit, in the morning, at noon, and about sunset.’ 
“ Thus wrote Hernandez now two hundred years ago ; and Willughby, his translator, evidently doubted the 
existence of such a bird as his Quetzaltototl. It was not until the year 1825 that a magnificent bird of 
the family of the Trogons was made known to science, which can be no other than the bird Hernandez 
described so many years before. When seeking for objects for illustration in his well-known work the 
* Planches Coloriees des Oiseaux,’ M. Temminck had lent to him by Mr. Leadbeater a bird which he 
described and figured (PI. 372) under the name Trogon pavoninus, supposing the species to be the same as 
one then recently described by the Brazilian traveller, Spix, under that name. In 1831, however, De la Llave 
renamed the same bird, bestowing upon it the barbarous title Mocinno, under which it is now known to the 
