TOURACO 979 



As the foregoing shews, Toucans are a Neotropical form, and 

 by far the greater number inhabit the northern part of South 

 America, especially Guiana and the valley of the Amazons. Some 

 three sjoecies occur in Mexico, and several in Central America. 

 One, R. vitellimis, which has its headquarters on the mainland, is 

 said to be common in Trinidad, but none are found in the Antilles 

 proper. The precise place of the Family in the heterogeneous 

 group Picarise cannot yet be determined. Its nearest allies perhaps 

 exist among the Capitonidse ; but none of them are believed to have 

 the long feather-like tongue which is so characteristic of the 

 Toucans, and is, so far as known, possessed besides only by the 

 Momotidse (Motmot, p. 593). But of these last there is no reason 

 to deem the Toucans close relatives, and, according to Swainson 

 (Classif. B. p. 141), who had opportunities of observing both, the 

 alleged resemblance in their habits has no existence. Those of the 

 Toucans in confinement have been well described by Broderip and 

 Vigors {Zool. Journ. i. p. 484 ; ii. p. 478), and indeed may be 

 partially observed in many zoological gardens. Though feeding 

 mainly on fruits, little seems amiss to them, and they swallow 

 grubs, reptiles and small birds with avidity. They are said to 

 nest in hollow trees, and to lay Avhite eggs. 



TOURACO, the name, evidently already in use, under which 

 in 1743 Edwards figured a pretty African bird,^ and presumably 



disposed like net-work, all of which lead immediately to the nostrils," and add 

 to the olfactory faculty. This notion seems to be borrowed from Trail {Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. xi. p. 289), who admittedly had it from Waterton, and stated that it 

 was "an admirable contrivance of nature to increase the delicacy of tlie organ of 

 smell ; " but Owen's description shews this view to be groundless, and he 

 attributes the extraordinary development of the Toucan's beak to the need of 

 compensating, by the additional power of mastication thus given, for the absence 

 of any of the grinding structures tliat are so characteristic of the intestinal tract 

 of vegetable-eating birds — its digestive organs possessing a general simplicity of 

 formation. The question is one worth deciding, and would not be difficult to 

 decide by those who have the opportunity. The nostrils are placed so as to be 

 in most forms invisible until sought, being obscured by the frontal feathers or 

 the backward prolongation of the horny sheath of the beak. The wings are 

 somewhat feeble, and the legs have the toes placed in pairs, two before and two 

 behind. The tail is capable of free vertical motion, and controlled by strong 

 muscles, so that, at least in the true Toucans, when the bird is preparing to 

 sleep, it is thrown forward and lies almost flat on the back, on which also the 

 huge bill reposes, pointing in the opposite direction. 



^ Apparently tlie first ornithologist to make the bird known was Albin, who 

 figured it in 1738 from the life, yet badly, as "The Crown-bird of Mexico." He 

 had doubtless been misinformed as to its proper country ; but Touracos were 

 called "Crown-birds" by the Europeans in West Africa, as witness Bosnian's 

 DescriiMon of the Coast of Guinea (1721), ed. 2, p. 251, and W. Smith's Voyage 

 to Guinea (1745), p. 149, though the name was also given to the Crowned 

 Ckanks, Balearica. 



