TOUCANS AND HONEY-GUIDES 



59 



never so ornamented. The solid appearance of the beak in the toucan, by the way, is as much 

 a fiction as with the hornbill, since the horny sheath is supported, not on a core of solid bone, 

 but on a frame of delicate bony filigree-work, the spaces being filled by air. The coloration of 

 the plumage (which is somewhat loose in character), as well as of the bare skin round the eye and 

 the beak-sheath, is most brilliant, and displays immense variation amongst the different species. 



Shy and restless in their habits, toucans travel generally in small flocks amongst the forest- 

 trees and mangrove-swamps in search of food, which consists mainly of fruits and seeds, 

 varying this diet occasionally with ants and caterpillars. It is to this diet of fruit that the 

 great size of the bill and its peculiar saw-like edges are to be traced at least this is the 

 opinion of the great traveller-naturalist Bates, who had so many opportunities of watching 

 these birds. " Flowers and fruit," he writes, " on the crowns of the large trees of South American 

 forests grow principally towards the end of slender twigs, which will not bear any considerable 

 weight. All animals, therefore, which feed principally 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 corresponding muscular develop- 

 ment, by which they are enabled to sus- 

 tain themselves on the wing before 

 blossoms whilst rifling them of their con- 

 tents ; [and the long bill of the toucan en- 

 ables it] to reach and devour fruit whilst 

 remaining seated, and thus to counter- 

 balance the disadvantage which its heavy 

 body and gluttonous appetite would 

 otherwise give it in the competition with 

 allied groups of birds." 



Toucans appear to be much esteemed 

 as articles of food at least during the 

 months of June and July, when these 

 birds get very fat, the flesh being ex- 

 ceedingly sweet and tender. They nest 

 in holes of trees at a great height from 

 the ground, and lay white eggs. 



One of the most remarkable of the group is the CURL-CRESTED TOUCAN, from the fact 

 that the feathers on the crown of the head are peculiarly modified to form scroll-like, glossy 

 curls, which have been compared to shavings of steel or ebony. Mr. Bates writes: "I had an 

 amusing adventure one day with one of these birds. I had shot one from a rather high tree 

 in a dark glen in the forest, and entered the thicket where the bird had fallen to secure my booty. 

 It was only wounded, and on my attempting to seize it set up a loud scream. In an instant, 

 as if by magic, the shady nook seemed alive with these birds, although there was certainly 

 none visible when I entered the jungle. They descended towards me, hopping from bough to 

 bough, some of them swinging on the loops and cables of woody lianas, and all croaking and 

 fluttering their wings like so many furies. If I had had a long stick in my hand, I could 

 have knocked several of them over. After killing the wounded one, I began to prepare for 

 obtaining more specimens and punishing the viragos for their boldness. But the screaming of 

 their companion having ceased, they remounted the trees, and before I could reload every one 

 of them had disappeared." 



With neither charm of colour nor peculiar shape, the small African birds known as 

 HONEY-GUIDES are some of the most remarkable of birds, and this on account of a quite 



TROGON 



Trogons haunt the recesses of the thickest foresti 



