AH righls tesejved,} [JULY, 1907. 



BIRD NOTES: 



THE JOURNAL OF 



THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 



ITbe (5reen=billeD toucan. 



Ramphasios dicoloms. Linn. 



B}' vS. M. TOWNSEND. 



A little more than two years ago, a dealer told me 

 that he was expecting. some rareToncans, consequently 

 I called on him several times, but all to no purpose. I 

 used to look in and say, " Have the Toucans come 

 yet?" and always got the same answer, "Not yet, 

 but I expect them in a day or two." At last, one day 

 when I had nearly given them up, he met me with the 

 remark, "Didn't you see them?" and taking me out- 

 side the shop he showed nie, in a dirty box, about 2ft. 

 square, with a piece of wire netting across the front, 

 five Green-billed Toucans in very fine condition, but 

 packed like sardines. After a great deal of haggling, 

 in which I came off second best, I became the 

 possessor of one of them. I afterwards heard that 

 the other four were bought by some one who was 

 over at that time buying largely for a New York Zoo. 



It was on a Thursday that I bought it, plump, 

 and looking as healthy as possible. By the following 

 Monday it had become so ill that if I had been asked 

 to insure its life, I would not have risked a shilling on 

 it. I had kept a Green-billed Toucan* before and had 

 done very well with it, and also one of the smaller 

 Toucans, the latter I still have, and I started feeding 



* At least I bought it as a Green-billed Toucan, but it wasvery diflfereut 

 to the present one; the uuderparts being- entirely black, the bib only cue 

 shade of yellow, and the bill was tipped with red. 



