328 BULLETIN" 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



with the minunum of weight.'^ The tongue is also peculiar, consist- 

 ing of a "long, narrow, thin lamina, flattened horizontally and 

 supported by the anterior process of the hyoid bone, which forms a 

 ridge beneath it. It measures nearly six inches in length in the 

 large species [of Rampliastos]. At about four inches from its 

 extremity it is obliquely notched on both sides, and these notches 

 become deeper and deeper toward the apex, giving it a strongly 

 bristled appearance," (Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xix,p. 122.) 



FamHy RAMPHASTID^. 



THE TOUCANS. 



=[ZygodactyK] Pteroglossi Vieellot, Analyse, 1816, 26. 



=Ramp}iastid£e Bonaparte, Saggio distr. An. Vert., 1831, 41; Prodr. Syst. Orn., 



1840, 16; Consp. Av., i, 1850, 92.— Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 324.— 



LiLLjEBORG, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1866, 16. — Stejneger, Stand. Nat. 



Hist., iv, 1885, 412, 414, in text. 

 = Rhamphastidse Nitzsch, Syst. Pterylog., 1840, 135. — Sclater and Salvin, 



Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, pp. 108. — Fuerbringer, Unters. Morph. Syst. 



Vog., ii, 1888, 1391. — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, 1896, 



551.— Sharpe, Hand-list, ii, 1900, 189. 

 =Ra7nphastinse Bonaparte, Prodr. Syst. Orn., 1840, 17; Consp. Av., i, 1850, 92. 

 =Rhaviphastinse Cabanis, in Wiegmann's Archiv fiir Naturg., 1847, i, 348. — 



Sundevall, Met. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., ii, 1873, 75 (EngHsh translation, 



1889, 148). 



The characters of the family Ramphastidse are the same as those of 

 the superfamUy Ramphastides (as given on pp. 2, 327), the latter con- 

 taining only this one family. 



The Ramphastidse are peculiar to the continental portion of tropical 

 America, ranging from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, their 

 southward distribution along the Pacific coast district bemg limited 

 by the Gulf of Guayaquil, in Ecuador. Of the five genera and sixty 

 species recognized in Sharpens Hand-list of the Genera and Species 

 of Birds (vol. ii, 1900, pp. 189-193), four of the former but only ten 

 of the latter occur from Panama northward, the famUy being most 

 numerously represented in the valley of the Amazon and contiguous 

 regions of the Guianas, Venezuela, and Colombia. 



The Toucans are forest birds of arboreal habits and feed chiefly on 

 fruits, though in captivity, at least, they are completely omnivorous; 

 and it is said that in the wild state they destroy the eggs and young 

 of other birds, after the well-known habit of members of the Corvidae. 

 Little is known of their nesting habits, but so far as these have been 



oThis structure is elaborately described and illustrated by Sir Richard Owen in 

 the "Introduction" to Gould's "Monograph of the Ramphastidse." See also Stej- 

 neger in "Standard Natural History," Birds, pp. 414-415. 



