TROGON TEMNURUS, Temm.

Cuba Trogon.

SpecrFic CHARACTER.

Trog. capite saturate chalybeo-ceruleo ; dorso alisque viridibus, harum secundariis ad apicem albo
laté unifasciatis, remogibus nigris albo fasciatis ; gutture pectoreque cinereis ; ventre coccineo ;
rectricibus intermedus sex viridibus, ad apicem (pogoniis expansis) laté emarginatis, reliquis
ad basin viridibus, in medio fascia albé alterdque viridi notatis, ad apicem late albis.

Rostrum sanguineum ad culmen nigro notatum ; pedes brunnei.

Bill blood red with a broad culminal mark of black; whole of the head and ear-coverts deep
glossy steel-blue; back and upper tail-coverts green; throat and breast light grey ; lower
part of the abdomen and under tail-coverts scarlet ; upper part of the wings green, the
secondaries being crossed near their tip with a broad bar of white; primaries black
strongly barred with white ; six middle tail-feathers green, each having the web at the tip
elongated from the stem on each side, forming the end of the feather into a deep scollop ;
the three outer feathers on each side green at the base, succeeded by an alternate bar of
white and green, and deeply tipped with white; feet brown.

ae

Total length, 103 inches; dz//, 1; wing, 6; tail, 64; tarsi, 4.

Trogon temnurus. Temm. Pl. Col. 326.

 

So extremely scarce is this singular species in the collections of Europe, and so little information has been
obtained relative to its history, that its habits and manners are totally unknown. The female, as far as I am
aware, has never yet been described or even seen by any ornithologist. Its native habitat, Cuba, is I believe
the most northern locality from which any of its race has been received, and it is to be hoped that ere long
some enterprising naturalist will direct his attention to the country of which this bird is a native, and afford
us some information respecting its economy. It was first figured in the Planches Coloriées of M. Temminck,
who states that specimens form part of the collections of Leyden, Brussels, and Paris: these, with an imper-
fect skin in the possession of the Zoological Society, are, I believe, all the examples of this bird in Europe.

Upon looking at the markings of the wing, we cannot fail to be struck with their resemblance to those on
the same part of several of the Woodpeckers ; the peculiar termination of the tail also, together with its more
attenuated bill, are features equally conspicuous, yet these must be considered as relations of analogy and not
of affinity.