{ 314}FAMILY 66.--TROGONIDÆ. (7 Genera, 44 Species.)
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | -- 2. 3. 4 |-- -- -- --|-- -- -- --|1. 2. 3 -- |1. 2. 3. 4 |-- -- -- -- | | | | |
The Trogons form a well-marked family of insectivorous forest-haunting birds, whose dense yet puffy plumage exhibits the most exquisite tints of pink, crimson, orange, brown, or metallic green, often relieved by delicate bands of pure white. In one Guatemalan species the tail coverts are enormously lengthened into waving plumes of rich metallic green, as graceful and marvellous as those of the Paradise-birds. Trogons are tolerably abundant in the Neotropical and Oriental regions, and are represented in Africa by a single species of a peculiar genus. The genera now generally admitted are the following:--
_Trogon_ (24 sp.), Paraguay to Mexico, and west of the Andes in Ecuador; _Temnotrogon_ (1 sp.), Hayti; _Prionoteles_ (1 sp.), Cuba (Plate XVII. Vol. II. p. 67); _Apaloderma_ (2 sp.), Tropical and South Africa; _Harpactes_ (10 sp.), the Oriental region, excluding China; _Pharomacrus_ (5 sp.), Amazonia to Guatemala; _Euptilotis_ (1 sp.), Mexico.
Remains of _Trogon_ have been found in the Miocene deposits of France; and we are thus able to understand the existing distribution of the family. At that exceptionally mild period in the northern hemisphere, these birds may have ranged over all Europe and North America; but, as the climate became more severe they gradually became restricted to the tropical regions, where alone a sufficiency of fruit and insect-food is found all the year round.
{ 315}FAMILY 67.--ALCEDINIDÆ. (19 Genera, 125 Species.)
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. __________________________________/\__________________________________ / \ NEOTROPICAL| NEARCTIC |PALÆARCTIC | ETHIOPIAN | ORIENTAL | AUSTRALIAN SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS|SUB-REGIONS. -----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | | | | | 1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 |1. 2. 3. 4 | | | | |