TOURACO 979 
As the foregoing shews, Toucans are a Neotropical form, and 
by far the greater number inhabit the northern part of South 
America, especially Guiana and the valley of the Amazons. Some 
three species occur in Mexico, and several in Central America. 
One, f. vitellinus, which has its headquarters on the mainland, is 
said to be common in Trinidad, but none are found in the Antilles 
proper. The precise place of the Family in the heterogeneous 
group Picariz cannot yet be determined. Its nearest allies perhaps 
exist among the Capitonidx ; but none of them are believed to have 
the long feather-like tongue which is so characteristic of the 
Toucans, and is, so far as known, possessed besides only by the 
Momotidx (Motmot, p. 593). But of these last there is no reason 
to deem the Toucans close relatives, and, according to Swainson 
(Classif. B. p. 141), who had opportunities of observing both, the 
alleged resemblance in their habits has no existence. Those of the 
Toucans in confinement have been well described by Broderip and 
Vigors (Zool. Journ. i. p. 484; li. p. 478), and indeed may be 
partially observed in many zoological gardens. Though feeding 
mainly on fruits, little seems amiss to them, and they swallow 
grubs, reptiles and small birds with avidity. They are said to 
nest in hollow trees, and to lay white eggs. 
TOURACO, the name, evidently already in use, under which 
in 1743 Edwards figured a pretty African bird,! and presumably 
disposed like net-work, all of which lead immediately to the nostrils,” and add 
to the olfactory faculty. This notion seems to be borrowed from Trail (Zvrans. 
Linn. Soc. xi. p. 289), who admittedly had it from Waterton, and stated that it 
was ‘‘an admirable contrivance of nature to increase the delicacy of the organ of 
smell;” but Owen’s description shews this view to be groundless, and he 
attributes the extraordinary development of the Toucan’s beak to the need of 
compensating, by the additional power of mastication thus given, for the absence 
of any of the grinding structures that are so characteristic of the intestinal tract 
of vegetable-eating birds—its digestive organs possessing a general simplicity of 
formation. The question is one worth deciding, and would not be difficult to 
decide by those who have the opportunity. The nostrils are placed so as to be 
in most forms invisible until sought, being obscured by the frontal feathers or 
the backward prolongation of the horny sheath of the beak. The wings are 
somewhat feeble, and the legs have the toes placed in pairs, two before and two 
behind. The tail is capable of free vertical motion, and controlled by strong 
muscles, so that, at least in the true Toucans, when the bird is preparing to 
sleep, it is thrown forward and lies almost flat on the back, on which also the 
huge bill reposes, pointing in the opposite direction. 
1 Apparently the first ornithologist to make the bird known was Albin, who 
figured it in 1738 from the life, yet badly, as ‘‘ The Crown-bird of Mexico.” He 
had doubtless been misinformed as to its proper country ; but Touracos were 
called ‘‘Crown-birds” by the Europeans in West Africa, as witness Bosman’s 
Description of the Coast of Guinea (1721), ed. 2, p. 251, and W. Smith’s Voyage 
to Guinea (1745), p. 149, though the name was also given to the Crowned 
Cranes, Baleavica. 
