TROGON MEXICANUS.
Mexican Trogon.

(Adult male.)

SprecrFic CHARACTER.

Trog. supra et ad pectus viridi ; gutture auribus, alisque nigris, his cinereo punctatis ; torque
pectoral alba ; ventre crissoque coccinets ; rectricibus duabus intermediis viridibus nigro
apiculatis, duabus proximis utringue nigris, reliqus ad basin nigris ad apicem albis.

Rostrum flavum: tars? brunnei.

Beak bright yellow ; throat and ear-coverts black, gradually blending with the green which
covers the chest and the whole of the upper surface; two middle tail-feathers green with
black tips; the two next on each side wholly black; the three outer on each side black
with white tips; wings black, the whole of which, with the exception of the primaries,
is finely dotted with grey ; a crescent of white encircles the chest; breast, belly, and under
tail-coverts fine scarlet ; feet brown.

‘Total length, 11 to 12 inches ; wing, 5%; tatl, 7%.

 

Iv is only by the careful examination of a great number of specimens of different ages that the ornithologist
is enabled to understand the changes of plumage which birds of this tribe undergo while passing from youth
to maturity, and which render them in specific distinction so extremely perplexing. The preceding remark
applies more particularly to the Trogons of the New World, which exhibit in their barred tails a feature that
will at all times readily distinguish them from those of the Old; but though we find that the barred tail is
characteristic of most of the species at a certain period of their existence, yet in some it is only the sign of
immaturity, while in others it is a striking feature in the adult.

The bird here represented was evidently considered by Mr. Swainson as a different species from 7. Mezi-
canus, as on looking over the collection of birds in the possession of John Taylor, Esq., I observed a speci-
men in the plumage of the present Plate, with a label attached to it bearing the name of Trogon Morgani
in Mr. Swainson’s handwriting ; under which name I should have figured it, had I not discovered in an-
other collection recently received by Mr. Taylor from Real del Monte, specimens directly intermediate be-
tween the Barred-tail Trogon as figured by Mr. Swainson in his Zoological Illustrations and the bird here
represented ; and as this difference is not effected by a change in the colouring of the feather, but by the
accession of a new one, the evidence is the more conclusive. One of these birds possessed the strongly-barred
tail on one side, while on the other it had a new feather, bearing all the characteristics of mature age in
being more square at the end and in being wholly black with a white tip.

I cannot close this account without offering my sincere thanks to Mr. John Taylor for the assistance which

he has rendered me in the investigation of this tribe of birds, by the loan of specimens in the most interesting
stages of plumage.

Habitat Northern Mexico.