Toucans:.’ 97 
branches. The largest species at Santo Domingo was the 
Rhamphastus tocard, Vieill., twenty-three inches in length, 
of which one-fourth was taken up by the long bill and another 
fourth by the tail; above, all black, excepting the tail- 
coverts, which are white; below, throat and breast clear 
lemon yellow, bordered with red, the rest black, excepting 
the under tail-coverts, red. When alive, the bill is beauti- 
fully painted with red, brown, and yellow. I kept a young 
one for some time as a pet until it was killed by my monkey. 
It became very tame, and was expert in catching cockroaches, 
swallowing them with a jerk of its bill. 
After passing through some low scrubby forest, very 
thick with tangled second growth, the clearings of the 
mestizoes were reached, about five miles below Santo 
Domingo. Maize, plantains, and a few native vegetables 
were grown here, and the owners now and then came up to 
the village to sell their produce. Their houses were open- 
sided low huts, thatched with palm-leaves; their furniture, 
rude bedsteads made out of a few rough poles, tied together . 
with bark, supported on crutches stuck in the ground, with 
raw-hides stretched across them; their cooking utensils a 
tortilla-stone and a few coarse earthenware jars and pans; 
their clothing dirty cotton rags. This was the limit of my 
journeys in this direction, although the path continued on to 
the savannahs towards San Thomas. ‘The soil at this place 
is good, and I think that it has been long cultivated, as much 
of the forest appears of second growth, in which small palms 
and prickly shrubs abound. 
