TIIE TOUCANS. 0C5 



room with a fire, and the unusual light seemed to interfere with its general habits ; it 

 did not then go to rest so earh' as had been its custom, and it sometimes even fed at a 

 later hour. During the summer months, however, when more free from interruption, 

 its habits were singularly regular. As the dusk of evening approached, the toucan 

 finished its last meal for the day, took a few turns, as if for exercise after its food, round 

 the perches of its cage, and then settling on the highest perch, disposed itself, almost at 

 the moment of alighting, with its head drawn in between its shoulders, and its tail turned 

 vertically over its back. 



In this posture it generally remained for about two hours, in a state between sleeping 

 and waking, its eyes for the most part closed, but opening on the slightest interruption. 

 At such times it would allow itself to be handled, and would even take any favourite food 

 that was offered, without altering its posture further than by a gentle turn of the head. 

 It would also suffer its tail to be replaced by the hand in its natural downward posture, 

 and would then immediately return it again to its vertical position. In these movements 

 the tail seemed to turn as if on a hinge that was acted on by a spring. At the end of 

 about two hours it began gradually to turn its bill over its right shoulder, and to nestle 

 it among the feathers of its back, sometimes concealing it completely within the plumage, 

 at other times leaving a slight portion of the culmen exposed. At the same time? it 

 dropped the feathers of its wings and those of the thigh-coverts, so as to encompass the 

 legs and feet ; and thus nearly assuming the appearance of an oval ball of feathers, 

 secui'ed itself against aU. exposure to cold. 



Mr. Waterton was the earliest n^uralist, with whom the writer is acquainted, that 

 gave an accurate account of the appearance of the biU of the living toucan. He says, 

 "were a specimen of each species presented to you, you would pronounce the bQl of the 

 Bouradi the most rich and beautiful ; on the ridge of the upper mandible a broad stripe 

 of most lovely j-ellow extends from the head to the point ; a stripe of the same breadth, 

 though somewhat deeper yellow, falls from it at right angles next the head down to the 

 edge of the mandible ; then follows a black stripe, half as broad, falling at right angles 

 from the ridge, and running narrower along the edge to within half an inch of the point. 

 The rest of the mandible is a deep bright red. The lower mandible has no yellow ; its 

 black and red are distributed in the same manner as on the upper one, with this differ- 

 ence, that there is black about an inch from the point. The stripe corresponding to the deep 

 yellow stripe of the tipper mandible is sky-blue. It is worthy of remark, that aU these 

 brilliant colours of the bill are to be found in the plumage of the body and the bare skin 

 round the eye. 



" All these colours, except the blue, are inherent in the horn ; that part which appears 

 blue is, in reality, transparent white, and receives its colour from a thin piece of blue 

 skin inside. This superb bill fades in death, and in three or four days' time has quite 

 lost its original colours. 



" Till within these few years, no idea of the true colours of the bill could be formed 

 from the stuffed toucans brought to Europe. About eight years ago" (we may now add 

 to this time about twenty-eight years), " while eating a broiled toucan, the thought 

 struck me that the colours in the bill of a preserved specimen might be kept as bright as 

 those in life. A series of experiments proved this beyond doubt. If you take your 

 penknife and cut away the roof of the upper mandible, you will find that the space 

 betwixt it and the outer shell contains a large collection of veins and small osseous fibres, 

 running in all directions thi'ough the whole extent of the bill. Clear away all these with 

 j'oiir knife, and you wiU come to a substance more firm than skin, but of not so strong a 

 texture as the horn itself ; cut this away also, and behind it is discovered a thin and 

 tender membrane, yellow where it has touched the yellow part of the horn, blue where 

 it has touched the red part, and black towards the edge and point ; when dried, this thin 



