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Then all at once I grasped his meaning. "Why, of course!" I cried. "How thick-headed of me!" I went to the bamboo half-box, half-basket Cross had made, and brought it back to where the Indian was sitting nursing his wounded leg, took off the lid, and carefully withdrew the trogon. "Is that the sort of bird you mean?" I said.
It recalled similar melodies sung by pheasants and Himalayan partridges, usually after they had gone to roost. Once the female swooped after an insect, and in the midst of one of the sweetest passages of the male trogon, a green grasshopper shifted his position. He was only two inches away from the singer, and all this time had been hidden by his chlorophyll-hued veil.
Now, with a whir, a trogon on the wing seizes the fruit, or some clumsy toucan makes the branches shake as he alights above our heads. This region, as might be supposed, is not destitute of inhabitants. Several tribes of Indians dwell within it all the year round.
The Indians were questioned in dumb show, with the skin of the trogon for a text, and we got on more, Uncle Dick's spirits rising as it grew more plainly that the Indian fully understood about the birds we wanted. In fact, in dumb show he at last began to teach us the bird's habits.
The casual visitors were the most conspicuous, an occasional trogon swooping across a glowing, feathered comet of emerald, azurite and gold; or, slowly drifting in and out among the vines and coming to rest with waving wings, a yellow and red spotted Ithomiid, or was it a Heliconiid or a Danaiid? with such bewildering models and marvelous mimics it was impossible to tell without capture and close examination.
The resplendent trogon the largest of the species is one of the handsomest of birds, on account of the richness and brilliancy of its colour, the beautiful blending of tints, the flowing grace of its plumage, and the elegance of its colour. On its forehead is a curiously-shaped tuft, of slight and elastic feathers which curl over something like those of the umbrella-bird.
This species of trogon feeds chiefly on vegetable diet. We may add that in old times its long plumes were among the insignia of Mexican monarchy, and none but members of the "blood royal" were permitted to wear its gorgeous feathers. The tongues of frogs, instead of pointing outwards, are directed towards the throat.
The quill-feathers are also black, each being edged with white; and the bill is a light yellow. The females differ considerably from the males. They are shy and retiring birds, and their habits, consequently, are difficult to study. The Mexican trogon is much smaller than the former, being only a foot in total length, of which the tail occupies nearly eight inches.
But with most of them my uncle was familiar, and unless the specimen seen was something rare, he let it go in peace. "Fortune may favour us, Nat," he said, "and we may come upon the home of the beautiful trogons, especially the splendid trogon, or quetzal. Then we must make the best of our opportunities."
He also got a very handsome trogon and an exquisite little tanager, as brilliant as a cluster of jewels; its throat was lilac, its breast turquoise, its crown and forehead topaz, while above it was glossy purple-black, the lower part of the back ruby-red. This tanager was a female; I can hardly imagine that the male is more brilliantly colored.
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