WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 139 



falling at right angles from the ridge, and running 

 narrower along, the edge to within half an inch 

 of the point. The rest of the mandible is a deep 

 bright red. The lower mandible has no yellow: 

 its black and red are distributed in the same man- 

 ner as on the upper one, with this difference, that 

 there is black about an inch from the point. The 

 stripe corresponding to the deep yellow stripe on 

 the upper mandible is sky blue. It is worthy of 

 remark that all these brilliant colours of the bill 

 are to be found in the plumage of the body, and 

 the bare skin round the eye. 



All these colours, except the blue, are inherent 

 in the horn; that part which appears blue is in 

 realitj^ transparent white, and receives its colour 

 from a thin piece of blue skin inside. This superb 

 bill fades in death, and in three or four days' time 

 has quite lost its original colours. 



Till within these few years, no idea of the true 

 colours of the bill could be formed from the 

 stuffed toucans brought to Europe. About eight 

 years ago, while eating a boiled toucan, the 

 thought struck me that the colours in the bill of 

 a preserved specimen might be kept as bright as 

 those in life. A series of experiments proved this 

 beyond a doubt. If you take your penknife and 

 cut away the roof of the upper mandible, you will 

 find that the space betwixt it and the outer shell 

 contains a large collection of veins, and small os- 

 seous fibres running in all directions through 

 the whole extent of the bill. Clear away all 

 these with your knife, and you will come to a 

 substance more firm than skin, but of not so 

 strong a texture as the horn itself; cut this 



