360 CUCULIFORMES CHAP. 
The wings are rather short and round, with ten primaries and 
twelve or thirteen secondaries; the rounded tail of varying length 
has ten rectrices. The furcula is U-shaped; the tongue sagit- 
tate—with bristly apex in Gallirex ; the nostrils—hidden in 
Turacus—are usually oval, but are hnear in Schizorhis and Gymno- 
schizorhis ; the aftershaft is large; the nestlings lack down. The 
red or grey orbits are naked, save in Schizorhis; in Gymno- 
schizorhis the cheeks and throat are bare and blackish. 
The six genera comprise two dozen or more species from about 
Dy 
mp YT 
MN iy, 
Le 
Fic. 71.—Green-mantled Turaco. Gallirex chlorochlamys. x 1. 
thirty to fifteen inches in length; the general coloration being 
metallic blue and green or greyish-brown, usually varied with 
crimson, and in the large Corythacola with yellow ; all have erectile 
crests of different sizes, except Musophaga violacea. The bill is 
red, yellowish, or black, the feet are black. The sexes are alike, 
the young duller. The red feathers yield a peculiar pigment, con- 
taining copper, called Turacin, which is reducible to a powder: 
this is so soluble that the colour is washed away during rain or 
in a bath, though regained subsequently.’ 
Plantain-eaters are found in pairs, or in small flocks of four to 
ten, over wooded country near inland or tidal waters, reaching an 
altitude of some ten thousand feet. The tops of high trees are 
1 See Church, Phil. Trans. 1869, pp. 627-636 ; op. cit. 1893, pp. 511-530. 
