INTRODUCTION. 
I 
At the commencement of the Introduction to the first edition I stated that, in selecting 
the family of Trogons as the subject of my second Monograph, I was influenced by 
the full conviction, not only that it was one fraught with interest, but that much was 
left buried in obscurity, which when brought to light would materially tend to the 
advancement of ornithology. That my language was justified has been amply proved 
during the course of nearly forty years which have elapsed since those words were written; 
for instead of the thirty-four different kinds then figured, we are now acquainted with 
forty-six species of Trogons, thirty-three of them being American, eleven Indian and Indo- 
Malayan, and two African. 
As their general structure and their habits sufficiently indicate, the Trogons belong 
to the fissirostral tribe of the Insessores. Greatly insectivorous, they seize the flitting 
insect from the leaves of trees, which their wide gape enables them to do with facility; 
while their feeble tarsi and feet are such as to qualify them merely for resting on the 
branches as a post of observation whence to mark their prey, and to which, having given 
chase, to return. As in all other groups, however, we shall find modifications of the 
type, constituting the ground of generic or subgeneric divisions. 
“The Trogons may dispute the palm of beauty with the Humming-birds. Their 
plumage in certain parts shines with metallic brilliancy, and exhibits all the colours of 
the rainbow. On other parts the tints, though opaque, are not less rich and splendid; 
but a very short neck, feet disproportioned to their figure and bulk, and a long and broad 
tail injure the harmony of their form, and give them a heavy port and aspect. Their 
