The existing genera include Anas, Aquila, Bubo, Columba, Cypselus, Lanius, Picus, Phalacrocorax, Sula, &c. Very interesting is the fact that Serpentarius, Psittacus and Trogon are amongst this list of birds, which are now restricted to the tropics.
There is one trogon - green and crimson, a brightly coloured ground thrush (Pitta), numerous woodpeckers and barbets; glossy starlings, the black and white African crow and a great variety of brilliantly coloured weaver birds, waxbills, shrikes and sun-birds.
On the 21st day of the sale of Bullock's Museum in 1819, Lot 38 is entered in the Catalogue as "The Tail Feather of a magnificent undescribed Trogon," and probably belonged to this species.
The unlookedfor discovery in France of remains which he has referred to, forms now existing it is true, but existing only in countries far removed from Europe, forms such as Collocalia, Leptosomus, Psittacus, Serpentarius and Trogon, is perhaps even more suggestive than the finding that France was once inhabited by forms that are wholly extinct, of which in the older formations there is abundance.
The wonderful plumage of the " quetzal " (Trogon resplendens) was, it is said, reserved b y the Aztec rulers for their own exclusive use.