476 EXPLANATORY INDEX. 



It is always to be found in dry situations, preferring the 

 pine forests, because they also love a dry soil. It is of small 

 size, and as it is very prettily coloured, it is sometimes manu- 

 factured into a snuff-box, being mounted in silver, and having 

 the movable plates fitted with hinges, and spring- clasps. 

 The colour is most variable, but black and yellow are the 

 most conspicuous hues. 



TOUCAN. Tropical America produces an inexhaustible 

 variety of living creatures, and there is perhaps none more 

 remarkable than that extraordinary group of birds known as 

 Toucans, from the native name Toco. 



Kingsley seems to have been greatly impressed with the 

 appearance of the toucan, and agrees with Waterton that it is 

 essentially a fruit-eating bird : 



"A Toucan out of the primaeval forest, as gorgeous in 

 colour as he is ridiculous in shape. His general plumage is 

 black, set off by a snow-white gorget fringed with crimson ; 

 crimson and green tail coverts, and a crimson and green beak, 

 with blue cere about his face and throat. 



