the Neotropical or South-American Region. The range of the family in past periods of the 
earth’s history appears to have been much more extensive, as M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards has 
identified two humeri as belonging to a species of Trogon, which were found in the Miocene 
formations of the Allier, in France. These he described in his work ‘ Oiseaux Fossiles de la 
France,’ ii. p. 395, as belonging to a species which he proposed to call Trogon gallicus. 
In America the Trogonidse are strictly confined to the warmer parts of the southern 
continent, and some of the West-India Islands ; the most northern part where they are found 
in Mexico appears to be Mazatlan on the Pacific, and the valley of the Rio Grande on the 
Atlantic side. Thence they spread southwards over the whole intertropical portion of South 
America, and as far south as the extension of the wood-region of the southern provinces of 
Brazil. Trogons are absent from the more southern portion of the continent, as well as 
from the western coasts of Chili and Peru. In the West Indies the two largest islands, 
Cuba and San Domingo, have each a peculiar species ; but none have yet been noticed in any 
of the other islands, not even in Jamaica or Port Rico, both of which possess forests suitable 
for their sustenance. From the Antilles proper I exclude the island of Trinidad and 
Tobago, which belong zoologically to South America. In Trinidad two species identical 
with continental ones occur. 
