976 TOUCAN 
TOUCAN, the Brazilian name of a bird,! long since adopted 
into nearly all European languages, and apparently first given 
currency in England (though not then used as an English word) in 
1668? by Charleton (Onomast. p. 115); but the bird, with its 
enormous beak and feather-like tongue, was described by Oviedo 
in his Sumario de la Natural Historia de las Indias, first published at 
Toledo in 1527 (chap. 42),? and indeed so remarkable a bird must 
have attracted the notice of the earliest European invaders of 
America, the more so since its gaudy plumage was used by the 
natives in the decoration of their persons and weapons. In 1555 
Belon (Hist. Nat. Oys. p. 184) gave a characteristic figure of its 
beak, and in 1558 Thevet (Stngularitez de la France Antarctique, pp. 
88-90) a somewhat long description, together with a woodcut (in 
some respects inaccurate, but quite unmistakable) of the whole 
bird, under the name of ‘‘Toucan,” which he was the first to 
publish. In 1560 Gesner (cones Avium, p. 130) gave a far better 
figure (though still somewhat incorrect) from a drawing received 
from Ferrerius, and suggested that from the size of its beak the 
bird should be called Burhynchus or Ramphestes. 'This figure, with 
a copy of Thevet’s and a detailed description, was repeated in the 
posthumous edition (1585) of his larger work (pp. 800, 801). By 
1579 Ambroise Paré (Guvres, ed. Malgaigne, iil. p. 783) had 
dissected a Toucan that belonged to Charles IX. of France, and 
about the same time Léry (Voy. Bresil, chap. xi.), whose chief object 
seems to have been to confute Thevet, confirmed that writer’s 
account of this bird in most respects. In 1599 Aldrovandus (Orn. 
i. pp. 801-803), always ready to profit by Gesner’s information, 
and generally without acknowledgment, again described and _ re- 
peated the former figures of the bird; but he corrupted his pre- 
decessor’s Iamphestes (which was nearly right) into Ramphastos, and 
in this incorrect form the name, which should certainly be hamphestes 
or Rhamphastas, was subsequently adopted by Linneeus and has since 
been recognized by systematists. Into the rest of the early history 
1 Commonly believed to be so called from its ery; but Prof. Skeat (Proc. 
Philolog. Soc. 15th May 1885) adduces evidence to prove that the Guarani T'wcd 
is from ¢7, nose, and cing, bone, t.e. nose of bone. 
2 In 1656 the beak of an ‘‘ Aracari of Brazil,” which was a Toucan of some 
sort, was contained in the Museum Tradescantianum (p. 2), but the word 
Toucan does not appear there. 
’ T have only been able to consult the reprint of this rare work contained in 
the Biblioteca de Autores Espamioles (xxii. pp. 473-515), published at Madrid in 
1852. To quote the translation of part of the passage in Willughby’s Ornithology 
(p. 129), ‘‘there is no bird secures her young ones better from the Monkeys, 
which are very noisom to the Young of most Birds. For when she perceives the 
approach of those Enemies, she so settles her self in her Nest as to put her Bill 
out at the hole, and gives the Monkeys such a welcom therewith, that they 
presently pack away, and glad they scape so.” 
