TOURACOUS. 



125 



520), say: "These Touracous are commion here, their 

 hoarse croaking ibeiiig con&taaitly heard in the thick 

 bush. The nest is built in tllie top oi a tree, and is not 

 often found. It is made of .sticks, and the eggs are 

 white. We noticed that tJie birds shot after rain had 

 lost much of the brilliancy of tlie carmine coJour of the 

 wing-feathers, but apparently the colouv returns afte^r 

 the weather sets 'drv au;.ain." 



In The. IhU for 1904, p. 107. Mr. G. C. Shortrid^e 

 says of a. male bia'd : " Iris hazeil ; bill red ; legs blaclc. 

 In the stomach, berries." And of a femaie : "Iris dark 

 •brown. In the stomach, wild tigs." It would be in- 

 t-eresiting to ascea-tain whetiier this is a constant sexual 

 difference, since we know that in many Parrots the 

 colouring of the iris diffea« sexually. Tliis sipecies was 

 first purchased for the London Zoological Gardejis in 

 May, 1870, siince when the Society has acquired several 

 other specimens; it has also got into private hands, 

 and in The. ArimUural Maqazine, Second Series, 

 Vol. VI., pp. 297, 298. the Kev! Hubert D. Aetley, who 

 secured four ex;vmple.i in 1907, has published an account 

 (illustrated by tlie plate from Messrs. Haagner and 

 Ivy'e ibook) of" the nesting of a pair in his aviaxdes. He 

 says that he feeds his Ibirds on "Iboiled rice, pota^to and 

 carrot, with st^a^^^berries, cherries, grapes, banana, and 

 sometimes melon." 



Great-billed, or Fraser's, Toveacou (Turacus 

 macrorhiinrhus). 



Albove, mantle, body of wing, and uipper tail-coverts 

 glossy violelt-blue, varied with metallic green ; flights, 

 as usual, crimson and black ; lower back blacker and 

 less glassy than the mantle ; tail glossy greenish viola- 

 ceous, more greenish than the manitle ; head, neck, and 

 iront of chest grass-gi-een, which colour shades into 

 blood-red on the tei-minal half of the crest and the back 

 of neck, but itlhe longer crest-feathers almost deepening 

 to black : feathers of hind-crest and narpe white-tipped ; 

 naked orbita,l patch red, bounded in ti-ont by a broad 

 white band extending to the bill, and below by a small 

 pa.tch of black feathers on the cheek ; behind the latter 

 a broad white band extending to below the ear-coverts ; 

 back of chest and remainder of under parts dusky 

 black, partly glossed with green ; bill orange, olivaceous 

 towards the nostrils ; feeit black : irides brown. Female 

 apparenitly slightly larger than the male, and doubtlees 

 with a stouter bill. Hab., "East Africa south of the 

 Eauator, between Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar." (Shellev.) 



Oaptain B. Alexiander says [The Ihis, 1902, p. 362) : 

 "In the adult male the upper mandible is yellow;. orange 

 at tlhe lower part of the base, the lower mandible reid. 

 the iris bluish-'black ; the eyelids are coral, and the legs 

 and feet black. " Russ says : " It is but rarely imported 

 alive. It iirst an-ived at the Zoological Gardens of 

 Amsterdam in the year 1854, and in the years 1865 and 

 1866 it came to the Berlin Gai-dens." He says notliiiig 

 about the London Gardens, which also received it in 

 the same vears, and again subsequently — certainly up 

 to 1890, if" not later. 



In The Ariciiltiiral Magazine. Second Series, Vol. 

 in., pp. 26-29, Mrs. Johnstone piJblished an interesting 

 account of the nesting of this species in her aviaries. 

 Unhappily, on this occasion the single yonng one 

 hatched was not reared ; it, however, afforded the 

 material for a very impontamt pa.per on the pite-i-ylosis 

 of the young Touracou bv Mr. W. P. Pycraift it.e. pp. 

 -155-63). "Undeterred by h6"r lack of suocesis in 1904, Mrs. 

 Johnstone -put up the' birds again in the following vear, 

 and in The Magazme for 1906-7 (Vol. V., pp. 87-90) 

 she has given a full account of the successful nesting 

 of th-s species in an outdoor aviary. One young one 

 was reared. 



From what Mrs. Johnstone says, there can be little 

 doubt that the Touracous in their wild state must, to 

 some extent, feed upon insects as well as fruit, like 

 otiher ifrugivorous birds. 



Red-crested Tour.icou (Turaeus erythrulophm). 



Above with manitle and metallic part of wings golden 

 green ; back dull Wue, partly glossed wikih golden greea : 

 upper tail-ooverits and tail ^>uiipliiSh-blue ; mpper part of 

 head and naipe blood-red, darkest at ends of nucihal 

 feathers ; longer feathers of crest white -(tipped ; sides 

 of head and chin white, shading into grass-green on 

 throat, neck, and front of chest ; rest of body duU slate- 

 colour slightiy glossed with green ; bill yellow, oliva- 

 ceous towards nostrils ; feet black ; irddes ibrown ; bare 

 orbital ring probably red. Female not differentialted , 

 but doubtless with a broader bill. Hato., West Africa, 

 from Sierra Leone to Anjgola.. 



ilonteLro met w-ith this species "pretty abunidinltly 

 to the interior of Novo Redondo" {vide Sharpe and 

 Layard, " Biixls of S. Atnica," p. 143). According to 

 Russ, this species nairely aippears in the German bird 

 n arkel. It reached the London Zoological Gardens in 

 1878, and those of Amstei^dam in 1887. 



Purple-crested Toueacou (Gallirex porphyreolophus). 



Above with mantle and ■wing-coverts blue, changing 

 to green towards neck and on le-ast covert'S ; remainder 

 of metallic part of wings, upj>er tail-coverts, and tail 

 greenish-blue; primaries crimson and black, as in 

 Turacus; remamder oi back dull L,'r(iiiish4blue ; fore- 

 head, sides of head, lores, chin, :iihl iipiirr neck metallic 

 green, changing to glossy vitjiaci mis iilue on cres:t and 

 nape ; remainder of under sui f.crti .sniuky aish, deeper 

 and partly glossed with green on under taSl-tcoverts ; 

 bill and feet black ; eyelids scarlet ; irides dark brown- 

 Female not differentiated. Halb., "South Africa, from 

 the Zambesi througli Naltal to the Knyisna in Cape 

 Colony." (Shelley.) 



Messrs. Stark and Sclater say (" Birds of Soutih 

 Africa," Vol. III., ,pp. 218. 219) i "The Purple Lourie 

 i= common in the dense bush along the sea coast of 

 Natial, but retreats irJand for about fifteen miles, accord- 

 ing to Ayres, in the .spring, retiu'iiing during the sum- 

 mei", autumn, and winter, to the coaist. Several birds. 

 are dften to be seen togetheir, hopping and climbing 

 about among the branches of the larger trees, anid 

 playing antics with one anoither, depressing and expand- 

 ing their tails and displaying the rich crimson of their 

 wings. They have a loud and harsih voice, comipared by 

 Shelley to the name often applied to them, ' Tourakoo,' 

 generally heard at early morning 'and in the evening. 

 The food consists of hard, nutty beraies and small fruits, 

 which are swallowed whole." 



ilr. C. F. JI. Swynnerton {The Ibis, 1907, pp. 294- 

 296) publishes the foUowiing valuable notes on this 

 species: — "This is the Touraco of the open woods, 

 and is paaihicularly fond of the large trees and clumips 

 of dense bush growing on ant-lheaps ; it may oJiten be 

 seen flying froin clump to clump, and traversing each 

 with three or four long hops before proceeding to the 

 next. I have never found it in the forest. It is a bold 

 and strikingly-coJonred bird, but quite lacks the grace 

 and soft beauty of the preceding species (Livingstone's 

 Toura?ou). Two yomng birds were broughit to me by 

 a native in Februa'ry, 1905 ; he stated that the ne-st was 

 placed in a bush, ten or twelve feet from the ground, 

 and resemlbled that, of a Dove, and that two was the 

 u.sual number of the clutch. One of these fledglinigshas 

 survived, having been kept till recently in a large aviary 

 with a number of other birds, towards which, however. 



