HOMES OF TOUCANS 199 



From March to July the notes of the red-billed toucans 

 were one of the commonest of jungle sounds, but by August 

 the birds seemed to have become much more quiet, and we 

 seldom had our attention drawn to them. At this time they 

 were usually seen in trios — doubtless parents and a single 

 young, or in flocks of five or six. ' The molt was completed 

 in a number of individuals as early as the first week in July. 



BLACK-NECKED ARACARI 



Pteroglossus aracari 



Across the oNIazaruni, just beyond the limit jungle- 

 wards of the Penal Settlement clearing, we noticed that a 

 pair of these toucans haunted the vicinity of a tall, unknown 

 jungle tree. Its white trunk rose smooth and straight as 

 a palm, high above the surrounding bush, and at a great 

 height from the ground burst into a wide-branched mass of 

 foliage. The birds did more calling and climbing about this 

 tree than seemed consistent with mere distinterested search 

 for food. 



Just above the first branch a blackened knot-hole was 

 not quite free from suspicion and we set up an amiable mur- 

 derer and a pleasant burglar to watch the hole while his 

 companions cut firewood in the vicinity. Hope, one of the 

 trusties, an interesting forger, and a particular friend of 

 ours, at last brought word that the birds were entering and 

 leaving, and he volunteered to fell the tree single-handed. 

 This he did in three hours on the morning of April 15. To 

 cut down such a tree anywhere else in the world would have 

 been nothing less than criminal. Here, as a giant among a 

 continent of giants, it was of no more consequence than the 

 breaking of a blade of grass. 



As the cutting went on, the parent toucans hopped si- 

 lently about in the neigliboring trees, silent except for the 

 occasional loud whirr of their wings. When at last they 



^ See the notes on this siiecies whieli I jjublished in "Our Search for a Wil- 

 derness," 1910, p. 327. 



