HOMES OF TOUCANS 191 



and fifty feet above the ground, swayed and swept down- 

 ward. Just before the tree fell and after it had quivered 

 and resounded for hours to the blows of the axe, both tou- 

 cans entered and left the nesting hole. Exhilarated by this 

 emphatic circumstantial evidence we searched eagerly and 

 found the remains of the hole. We enlisted the aid of a 

 score of coolies, we examined every leaf and blade of grass 

 in the glade, every chip and splinter passed under our scrut- 

 iny, but in spite of the most minute examination of the 

 ground, no trace of shell or young was ever discovered. The 

 male bird which we then secured was in full breeding con- 

 dition, but our first toucan quest, fostered by many days of 

 vivid anticipation, ended in complete failure. There was no 

 shred of doubt that the birds had not yet deposited eggs in 

 the nest which they had so laboriously prepared, and for two 

 weeks had occupied almost constantly. 



GUIANA TOTJCANET 



Selenidera culik 



These little green toucans were not common, and it was 

 by sheer accident that we learned anything of their nesting. 

 Whenever I passed near any benab or small hamlet of In- 

 dians, usually Akawais, I always asked for news of the vari- 

 ous toucans, all five of which they knew well, and for which 

 they had very definite names. As my boat was passing 

 along the west bank of the Mazaruni one day early in April, 

 I saw some Indian women squatting on a sloping rock, vig- 

 orously pounding clothes. I sang out and asked in succes- 

 sion for "katching, palaflek and kamata." At the last word 

 an old, old squaw called something, and landing, I found 

 that an Indian in a neighboring benab had two young birds 

 in his possession. A girl consented to show the way, so we 

 entered a narrow trail in the deep jungle and walked several 

 hundred yards to a thatched benab, from which swung two 

 hammocks, and which at this moment sheltered an old tooth- 



