430 B I R D. 



The first group includes the bills of the jaca- 

 mars, the woodpeckers, and the wrynecks. The bill 

 in all these is straight, fitted for digging into the 

 bark of trees, and extracting insects and larvae ; 

 and though some of the birds are of considerable 

 size, and the insects on which they feed remarkably 

 small, yet they pick them up with wonderful celerity. 

 The following figure will show the general character 

 of the bill. 



Green Woodpecker. 



The woodpeckers have the stoutest bill and the 

 best fitted for hewing into timber. The wrynecks 

 as frequently pick up saw-flies and other small 

 winged insects, which alight on the bark for the 

 purpose of depositing their eggs ; and the extent 

 and freedom of motion in the neck are both very 

 remarkable. The American jacamars, though they 

 do not peck, have the bill resembling that of the 

 common kingfisher ; but their congeners of the East 

 have it more slender, and a little arched, inclining 

 to the form of that of the bee-eaters, and they are 

 not so much in the habit of climbing as the others. 



The cuckoos have the bill of moderate length, but 

 differing in form and structure in the different genera 

 of which the group is made up, as these differ consi- 

 derably in their feeding and other habits. They do 

 not dig in the bark for insects ; and they inhabit the 

 copses and open forests rather than those which are 

 deep and tangled. 



Between the cuckoos and the toucans there occur 

 several genera with bills very much diversified in 

 shape, and with the owners of course as miscellaneous 

 in their feeding. In general, however, they are in- 

 sectivorous, or add to these small earth animals, and 

 sometimes the mere succulent vegetable substances. 

 The keel-bill is named from the strong projecting 

 ridge or keel on the culmen of the upper mandible, as 

 one of the best known and most remarkable of these, 

 remarkable alike for the universality of its agreement 

 with its own species, and with all other creatures,except- 

 ing those that serve it for food, and for the miscella- 

 neous nature of its feeding. It alights on the backs 

 of domestic animals, and clears their coats of insects. 



Of all this order, however, and indeed of all birds, 

 with the exception perhaps of the hornbills, this in- 

 strument is most singularly formed in the toucans. 

 There are two genera ; toucans proper (Rhamphastos'), 

 and aracari (Pteroglotsus), of which the systematic 

 names are not very descriptive, as each has the cha- 

 racter expressed by both. Each is rhamphaslos, 

 large bill, or, colloquially, " beaky ;" and each is 

 pteroglossus, winged-tongue, or feather-tongue ; but 

 the toucans have the bill largest, always exceeding 

 the section of the head, and sometimes as large as the 

 whole body, while the bill of the aracari is not thicker 

 than the head. The following sketch will show the 

 general form of the bill of the toucan. 



The general substance of this vast bill is cellular, 

 with the partitions of the cells so very thin that, 



large as it is, it is very light. In the living state the 

 covering membrane is very finely coloured with pris- 

 matic reflections, but these soon t'aile after death. 

 The rudely serrated edges are a little firmer than 

 the other parts, but still they could not injure any 

 but a very soft animal. 



Toucan. 



The tongue is stiff and cartilaginous toward the 

 point, and for some distance pectinated on each 

 side with stiff cartilaginous fibres, which give it 

 something the appearance of a feather. 



From its structure we may readily conclude that 

 a bill of this description can be little more than a 

 prehensile instrument, unfit for breaking a hard 

 substance, or cutting a tough one. It seems, in- 

 deed, to be a sort of mortar, in which soft substances 

 are in so far pounded by the action of the curious 

 tongue, as that they can be swallowed. Insects, 

 probably the naked and the more tender shelled 

 mollusca, and the eggs and callow young of little 

 birds, are the food of these birds ; in search of 

 which they hop about the trees, and though their 

 wings are rather short, they fly tolerably well. The 

 two genera are not very different in their food, or 

 in their other habits ; but besides the difference in 

 the size of the bills, there is a remarkable differ- 

 ence in colour, which runs through all the species. 

 The prevailing character of the true toucans is black, 

 relieved with brighter tints on the throat, breast, 

 and rump ; that of the aracari is generally green, 

 relieved on the same parts with red or yellow. 



Though they belong to different orders as well as 

 to different parts of the world, there are some resem- 

 blances between the hornbills and the toucans ; and 

 the one family of birds perform in the one continent 

 nearly the same office which the others perform 

 in the other. We have a similar instance, with some- 

 thing approaching to the same difference of character, 

 in themcrops of the eastern continent, and the prionites 

 of the western. Indeed, in all cases in which the 

 birds, or other animals of tropical America and the 

 tropical parts of Asia and Africa can come into com- 

 parison, we find that those of the former part of the 

 world indicate forests more close and tangled but less 

 abundant in fruits than those of the latter. 



Of all the climbing or zygodactvlic birds, the par- 

 rot tribe, in their several divisions of maccaws, parrots, 

 paroquets, and cockatoos, are the most typical, the 

 most exclusively inhabitants of trees, and the least 

 frequently found upon the ground. The species are 

 very numerous, and the individuals are, in such places 

 as are very favourable to their habits, in incredible 

 flocks. They are all vegetable chiefly in their feed- 

 ing, but some subsist more on the kernels of those 

 forest trees which have hard membranous or shelly 

 coverings, and others subsist on the pulp of fruits. 



