138 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



may sometimes see eight or ten in company, and 

 from this you would suppose they are gregarious ; 

 but, upon a closer examination, you will find it has 

 only been a dinner party, which breaks up and 

 disperses towards roosting-time. 



You will be at a loss to conjecture for what ends 

 nature has overloaded the head of this bird with 

 such an enormous bill. It cannot be for the offen- 

 sive, as it has no need to wage war with any of 

 the tribes of animated nature; for its food is 

 fruit and seeds, and those are in superabundance 

 throughout the whole year in the regions where 

 the toucan is found. It can hardly be for the de- 

 fensive, as the toucan is preyed upon by no bird 

 in South America, and were it obliged to be at 

 war, the texture of the bill is ill adapted to give 

 or receive blows, as you will see in dissecting it. 

 It cannot be for any particular protection to the 

 tongue, as the tongue is a perfect feather. 



The flight of the toucan is by jerks ; in the ac- 

 tion of flying it seems incommoded by this huge 

 disproportioned feature, and the head seems as 

 if bowed down to the earth by it against its will ; 

 if the extraordinary form and size of the bill 

 expose the toucan to ridicule, its colours make it 

 amends. Were a specimen of each species of the 

 toucan presented to you, you would pronounce 

 the bill of the bouradi the most rich and beautiful ; 

 on the ridge of the upper mandible a broad stripe 

 of most lovely yellow extends from the head to 

 the point; a stripe of the same breadth, though 

 somewhat deeper yellow, falls from it at right 

 angles next the head down to the edge of the man- 

 dible; then follows a black stripe, half as broad, 



