196 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



RED COLOR OF TOURACO. 



Much interest was excited some time ago by the announce- 

 ment of the occurrence of a peculiar red coloring matter, con- 

 taining copper, and soluble in water, on the wings of the tou- 

 raco (Mu&ophaga), a large species of African bird well known 

 to naturalists. M. Jules Verreaux, the ornithologist, has late- 

 ly given an account of these birds as observed by him in their 

 native localities, in the course of which he remarks that his 

 attention was first attracted to the soluble nature of the tou- 

 raco red in endeavoring to catch a wounded bird during a 

 rain. To his- surprise, on grasping it, there was left on the 

 palm of his hand a peculiar matter of a blood-red color, 

 which, however, disappeared on washing. He then found 

 that the red of the wing, under such circumstances, was 

 washed out, and the feathers became almost white ; but that, 

 as soon as the bird became perfectly dry, the red color imme- 

 diately reappeared. This experiment was repeated, on the 

 same bird, several times a day indefinitely, and always with 

 the same result. M. Verreaux also remarks that he has ob- 

 served a similar fact in regard to a species of Old -World 

 trogon, although it is not known whether the American rep- 

 resentatives of the group have the same peculiarity. 11 A, 

 Jan. 3,1871,40. 



PIRATICAL HABITS OF SOUTH AMERICAN GULL. 



Instances are abundant where one bird secures its food by 

 plundering another, and depriving it of prey just captured, 

 thus being able to live itself in idleness upon the labors of its 

 victim. Illustrations of this are seen in the treatment of the 

 fish-hawk by the bald eagle, the impositions practiced by the 

 jagers upon the gulls and terns, the theft of the celery-grass 

 roots by the bald-pated ducks from the canvas-backs, etc. 

 An interesting communication from Mr. Hudson, of Buenos 

 Ayres, to the Zoological Society of London, in reference to 

 the habits of the Larus cirrhocephalus, a South American spe- 

 cies of gull, informs us that this species, like the gulls about 

 Salt Lake, is in the habit of congregating in large numbers 

 in the cultivated fields, following the plowmen, and devour- 

 ing thejocusts, or other insects so abundant in that country, 

 which are turned up by the plow. At a certain season of the 



