In 1832 the Registro Trimestre, a literary and scientific journal printed at Mexico, contained a communication by Dr. Pablo de la Llave, describing this species (with which he first became acquainted before 1810, from examining more than a dozen specimens obtained by the natural-history expedition to New Spain and kept in the palace of the Retiro near Madrid) under the name by which it is now known, Pharomacrus mocino.3 Quezal, male and female.
The Quezal is hardly so big as a Turtle-Dove.
Among other species are P. antisianus, P. fulgidus, P. auriceps and P. pavoninus, from various parts of South America, but though all are beautiful birds, none possess the wonderful singularity of the quezal.