. The royal natural history. ield-glasses that,instead of perching on the upper surface of the branch, it remains attached to theside of the latter, just as woodpeckers glue themselves to the trunks and verticalbranches of trees. Its flight is rapid but weak. It feeds on fruits, especially onnectandras; and in the stomach of one I found a nectandra-fruit so large as tofill the whole stomach. I suppose, therefore, that the trogon, like the guacharo,rejects the nut after having digested the flesh, because otherwise some time mustelapse before it could swallow another fruit. The species has two c


. The royal natural history. ield-glasses that,instead of perching on the upper surface of the branch, it remains attached to theside of the latter, just as woodpeckers glue themselves to the trunks and verticalbranches of trees. Its flight is rapid but weak. It feeds on fruits, especially onnectandras; and in the stomach of one I found a nectandra-fruit so large as tofill the whole stomach. I suppose, therefore, that the trogon, like the guacharo,rejects the nut after having digested the flesh, because otherwise some time mustelapse before it could swallow another fruit. The species has two cries, both well TROGOA^S. 17 known to me; one like a mocking laugh is seldom heard; tlic otlier is a plaintiveha-hait, with the second syllable much prolonged. It has a ventriloquial f[ualit3and often deceives the hearer, who fancies that the bird is ever so far otf,whereas it is close at hand all the while. At Cuterro I had a good opportunityof observing its singular way of clinging in a vertical position to the trees. rX^X. spreading its tail out the while and thenshutting it suddenly. In this locality itfeeds on certain black fruits, which impartto its flesh an odour of marjoram. Inever saw it nesting, but the natives saidthat it nested in holes and laid eggs of agreenish blue. An egg which my com-panion found on the ground was universallyadmitted to belong to this trogon. Briefly referring to someof the other genera, it maybe mentioned that the South AmericanEuptilotis is characterised by the presenceof tufts of hair-like feathers beliind theear-coverts; tlic sole representative of thegenus being an inliabitant of Mexico. Longhair-Hke feathers in the same situationare likewise distinctive of the singlespecies of Tmetotrogon, which is confinedto the island of San Domingo; while in the Cuban Prionotdus of whichthere is also but one species, the tail-feathers are deeply notched. ^^ ith the smgleexception of a species (T. amhiguu.^) occurring just within tlie southern hmits ott


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booksubjectzoology