"Resident through the year at Concepcion, but especially abundant in winter, when it haunts the main river, the island-shores, and all the streams, big and little. It is not in the least shy, and one once perched in some willows directly over my boat and not 10 feet away, while he swallowed a tiny fish he had just captured; after which he twitted such a hearty little song that I really felt as if his proper place must be among the _Oscines_, in spite of all anatomical defects. On the Pampas, we found this a rather common bird on the small streams, and its presence on some streams whose waters are entirely absorbed by the desert before they can reach either sea or lake, first called my attention to the presence, even in these streams, of numbers of a small fish which is found in many of the pools as well all over the Pampas. Although both this and the preceding species must nest about Concepcion, I did not succeed of learning anything of the nest or eggs." Fam. XXV. TROGONIDÆ, or TROGONS. The Trogons, a family peculiar among all zygodactyle birds for having the inner toe instead of the outer toe reversed in position, are found in the Old World as well as in the New. But they are much more abundant in the Tropics of America, where they number some thirty species, and attain an astonishing development of ornamental plumage in the celebrated Quézal (_Pharomacrus_) of Guatemala. In Argentina two stray species only have, as yet, been recorded as met with in the northern provinces. The Trogons are purely arboreal in habits, and frequent the larger trees of the denser forests, feeding mainly on insects. 264. TROGON VARIEGATUS, Spix. (PURPLE-BREASTED TROGON.) +Trogon variegatus+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 104; _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 618 (Salta); _Gould, Mon. Trog._ ed. 2, pl. xix. _Description._--Above shining bronzy green; head purplish; wings blackish; coverts grey, finely vermiculated with black; tail--two middle feathers like the back, but tipped with black, next two pairs black, edged with green; three outer pairs white with broad black bars and white tips: beneath, breast dark purple, separated from the rosy-red abdomen by a narrow white band: whole length 9·0 inches, wing 5·0, tail 5·0. _Female_: above dark grey; wing-coverts and secondaries with transverse bars of black and white; tail, blackish, two middle feathers grey tipped with black, three outer pairs broadly edged externally and tipped with white: beneath, breast dark grey, separated from the rosy-red abdomen by a white band. _Hab._ Brazil and N. Argentina. White obtained examples of this Trogon at Campo Colorado, near Oran, where it frequents the topmost branches of the loftiest forest-trees, and is very difficult to discover. It is said to have a peculiar mournful cry. 265. TROGON SURUCURA, Vieill. (AZARA'S TROGON.)