VOICES OF TROPICAL BIRDS FUERTES. 315 



patches of the dark background or the blue sky, no black-patched 

 toucan in the foreground looks more velvety than do these leaf 

 interstices. As for the bizarre bills, they only serve to make it 

 harder, for they bear no resemblance to bill or bird and simply 

 merge their brilliancy with that of the whole picture they sit in. I 

 don't know how many times I have searched and searched and scruti- 

 nized, to find the author of some raucous carping, only to see one of 

 the large toucans burst away from a perch in plain sight, where he 

 had been all the time. This has happened to me so frequently that 

 I am sure other students must have had the same experience. 

 Perched on a dead stub above the sky line, toucans, like everything 

 else, are conspicuous in the extreme ; sitting quietly within the shade 

 of the forest cover, however varied their patchwork coat, they melt 

 tantalizingly into their setting. 



The big black toucans of Rhamphastos are generally called by 

 the natives Dios te de or Dios te ve — meaning God will give to you, 

 or God sees you. This is not a confession of faith on the part of 

 the simple native, but a free and lilting transcription of the bird's 

 call. It gives the rhythm and general shape of the sound fairly 

 well. I could analyze it a little more closely by calling it a loud, 

 hoarse whistle, with the words Tios-to-to or Tios, to, to, to. It has 

 something of the queer quality of a yellow-billed cuckoo's song, only, 

 of course, it is much larger and louder. R. tocard is the " Dios te de," 

 but the name fairly well fits and is generally applied to the whole 

 group of heavy billed toucans. 



The only other group we encountered was Pteroglossus, the ara- 

 cari toucans. These are small toucans, all joints and angles, much 

 given to going around in noisy troops like jays. Skillful and jerky 

 acrobats, . they are the very extreme of bow-legged angularity. 

 Curious as jays, they jerk and perk their way up into the branches 

 of some dead tree, their great clumsy beaks and thin pointed tails 

 complementing each other at odd angles. Toucans are all great tail 

 jerkers, and the aracaris the most switchy of all. Their harsh mob- 

 bing cries recall some similar sounds made by jays, but are even 

 louder and much more prolonged. Both are a great nuisance to 

 the hunter, as they follow endlessly, their curious prying screeches 

 and squawks effectually chasing out all the birds requiring more 

 finesse in their approach. I should call their most characteristic 

 noise a rattling, throaty squawk. In any case it will not take a 

 green hunter long to identify these birds, as they are restless and 

 their motion will soon catch the eye. I strongly suspect all the 

 toucans of the habit and ability to slip noiselessly and rapidly away 

 in case their curiosity is satisfied or their fear aroused. They are 

 capable of making long leaps from branch to branch with their wings 



