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TROGON
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TROGON , a word apparently first used as See also:English 1 by G. See also:Shaw (Alus. Leverianum, p. 177) in 1792, and now for many years accepted as the See also:general name of certain birds forming the See also:family Trogonidae .of See also:modern See also:ornithology. The trogons are birds of moderate See also:size: the smallest is hardly bigger than a See also:thrush and the largest less bulky than a See also:crow. In most of them the See also:bill is very wide at the gape, which is invariably beset by recurved bristles. They seize most of their See also:food, whether caterpillars or fruits, on the wing, though their alai See also:power is not exceptionally See also:great, their See also:flight being described as See also:short, rapid and spasmodic. Their feet are weak and of a unique structure, the second toe, which in most birds is the inner anterior one, being reverted, and thus the trogons stand alone, since in all other birds that have two toes before and two behind it is the See also:outer toe that is turned backward. The plumage is very remark-able and characteristic. There is not a See also:species which has not beauty beyond most birds, and the See also:glory of the See also:group culminates in the See also:quezal (q. v.). But in others See also:golden See also:green and steely See also:blue, See also:rich crimson2 and See also:tender See also:pink, yellow varying from See also:primrose to See also:amber, See also:vie with one another in vivid coloration, or contrasted, as happens in many species, with a warm tawny or a sombre slaty See also:grey—to say nothing of the delicate freckling of See also:black and See also: The tail is generally a very characteristic feature, the rectrices, though in some cases pointed, being often curiously squared at the tip, and when this is the See also:case they are usually ' Trogonem (the oblique case) occurs in See also:Pliny (H. N. x. 16) as the name of a See also:bird of which he knew nothing, See also:save that it was mentioned by See also:Hylas, an augur, whose See also:work is lost; but some would read Trygonem (furtle-See also:dove). In 1952 Mohring (Av. Genera, p. 85) applied the name to the "Curucui" (pronounced "Suruqua," vide See also:Bates, Nat. See also:Amazons, i. 254) of Marcgrav (His'. nat. Brasiliae, p. 211), who described and figured it in 1648 recognizably. In 176o See also:Brisson (Ornithologie, iv. 164) adopted Trogon as a generic See also:term, and, See also:Linnaeus having followed his example, it has since been universally accepted. Anatole I3ogdanoff determined the red pigment of the feathers of Pharomacrus auriceps to be a substance which he called " zooxanthine " (Comples rendus, Nov. 2, 1857, xlv. 690).barred See also:ladder-like with white and black.' According to J. See also:Gould, they are larger and more pointed in the See also:young than in the old, and grow squarer and have the white bands narrower at each succeeding See also:moult. He also asserts that in the species which have the wing coverts freckled, the freckling becomes finer with See also:age. So far as has been observed, the See also:nidification of these birds is in holes of trees, wherein are laid without any bedding two roundish eggs, generally white, but certainly in one species (quezal) tinted with bluish green. The trogons See also:form a very well-marked family, belonging to the coraciiform birds, and probably to be placed in that assemblage near the colies (see See also:MousE Bum) and swifts (q.v.). The remains of one, T. gallicus, have been recognized by A. Milne-See also:Edwards (Ois. See also:foss. de la See also:France, ii. 395, pl. 177, See also:figs. 18-22) from the Micoene of the See also:Allier. This fortunate See also:discovery seems to See also:account for the remarkable See also:distribution of the trogons at the See also:present See also:day. While they chiefly abound, and have See also:developed their See also:climax of magnificence, in the tropical parts of the New See also:World, they yet occur in the tropical parts of the Old. The species now inhabiting See also:Africa, forming the group Hapaloderma, can hardly be separated generically from those of the Neotropical Trogon, and the difference between the See also:Asiatic forms, if somewhat greater, is still comparatively slight. It is See also:plain then that the Trogons are an exceptionally persistent type; indeed in the whole class few similar instances occur, and perhaps none that can be called parallel. The extreme development of the type in the New World just noticed also furnishes another hint. While in some of the See also:American trogons (Pharomacrus, for instance) the plumage of the See also:females is not very much less beautiful than that of the See also:males, there are others in which the See also:hen birds retain what may be fairly deemed a more See also:ancient See also:livery, while the cocks flaunt in brilliant attire. Now the plumage of both sexes in all but one4 of the Asiatic trogons, Harpactes, resembles rather that of the young and of those females of the American species which are modestly clothed. The inference from this fact would seem to be that the general coloration of the Trogons See also:prior to the See also:establishment, by See also:geographical estrangement, of the two types was a russet similar to that now worn by the adults of both sexes in the See also:Indian region, and by a portion only of the females in the Neotropical. The Ethiopian type, as already said, very closely agrees with the American, and therefore would be likely to have been longer in connexion therewith. Again, while the adults of most of the American trogons (Pharomacrus and Euptilotis excepted) have the edges of the bill serrated, their young have them smooth or only with a single notch on either See also:side near the tip, and this is observable in the Asiatic trogons at all ages. At the same See also:time the most distinctive features of the whole group, which are easily taken in at a glance, but are difficult to See also:express briefly in words, are equally possessed by both branches of the family, showing that they were in all likelihood—for the possibility that the peculiarities may have been evolved apart is not to be overlooked—reached before the geographical sundering of these branches (whereby they are now placed on opposite sides of the globe) was effected. About sixty species of trogons are recognized, which J. Gould in the second edition of his Monograph of the family (1875) divides into seven genera. Pharomacrus, Euptilotis and Trogon inhabit the mainland of tropical See also:America, no species passing to the See also:north-See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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