Cuap. XII, FUNCTIONS OF TOUCAN’S BILL. 349 
not bear any considerable weight; all animals, therefore, which feed 
upon fruit, or on insects contained in flowers, must, of course, have 
some means of reaching the ends of the stalks from a distance. Monkeys 
obtain their food by stretching forth their long arms and, in some 
instances, their tails, to bring the fruit near to their mouths. Humming- 
birds are endowed with highly-perfected organs of flight, with cor- 
responding muscular development, by which they are enabled to 
sustain themselves on the wing before blossoms whilst rifling them of 
their contents. These strong-flying creatures, however, will, whenever 
they get a chance, remain on their perches whilst probing neighbouring 
flowers for insects. Trogons have feeble wings, and a dull, inactive 
temperament. Their mode of obtaining food is to station themselves 
quietly on low branches in the gloomy shades of the forest, and eye the 
fruits on the surrounding trees, darting off, as if with an effort, every 
time they wish to seize a mouthful, and returning to the same perch. 
Barbets (Capitoninze) seem to have no special endowment, either of 
habits or structure, to enable them to seize fruits ; and in this respect 
they are similar to the Toucans, if we leave the bill out of question, 
both tribes having heavy bodies, with feeble organs of flight, so that 
they are disabled from taking their food on the wing. The purpose of 
the enormous bill here becomes evident. Barbets and Toucans are 
very closely related ; indeed, a genus has lately been discovered towards 
the head waters of the Amazons,* which tends to link the two families 
together; the superior length of the Toucan’s bill gives it an advantage 
over the Barbet, with its small, conical beak ; it can reach and devour 
immense quantities of fruit whilst remaining seated, and thus its heavy 
body and gluttonous appetite form no obstacles to the prosperity of the 
species. It is worthy of note that the young of the Toucan has a very 
much smaller beak than the full-grown bird. The relation between the 
extraordinarily lengthened bill of the Toucan and its mode of obtaining 
food, is precisely similar to that between the long neck and lips of the 
Giraffe and the mode of browsing of the animal. The bill of the Toucan 
can scarcely be considered a very perfectly-formed instrument for the 
end to which it is applied, as here explained ; but nature appears not to 
shape organs at once for the functions to which they are now adapted, 
but avails herself, here of one already- existing structure or instinct, there 
of another, according as they are handy when need for their further 
modification arises. 
One day, whilst walking along the principal pathway in the woods 
near Ega, I saw one of these Toucans seated gravely on a low branch 
close to the road, and had no difficulty in seizing it with my hand. 
It turned out to be a runaway pet bird ; no one, however, came to own 
it, although I kept it in my house for several months. The bird was in 
a half-starved and sickly condition, but after a few days of good living it 
recovered health and spirits, and became one of the most amusing pets 
imaginable. Many excellent accounts of the habits of tame toucans 
have been published, and therefore I need not describe them in detail, 
but I do not recollect to have seen any notice of their intelligence and 
* Tetragonops. Dr. Sclater has lately given a figure of this bird in the Ibis, 
vol. iii., p. 182. 
