352 



AVES ORDER SCANSORES. 



dull 



are 



coloration, but 

 generally called 



the majority are brilliantly plumaged 

 "Lowries" by the colonists of South 



The Climbing 

 Birds. Order 



Scansores. 



Fig. 84. LADY Ross 



TOURACOE 



(M usophaga rosscr). 



and of a 

 birds, and 

 Africa. 



In the true touracoes (Turacus) the nostrils are hidden by bristles; in all 

 the other genera they are exposed. In the genus Musophaga, of which M. 

 rossce, from Angola and the Congo basin, is an ex- 

 ample, there is not only an ornamental frontal shield 

 of red, but the primary quills are of a deep crimson, 

 as they are in all the members of the genus Turacus. 

 From the wing-feathers of these birds has been ex- 

 tracted a kind of copper called turacine. The nest 

 of the touracoes is an open one, made of sticks, and 

 the egg is white. 



In all the Scansores the foot is typically zygo- 

 dactyle, the first and fourth toes being turned 



backwards, the second and third 



forwards, and the arrangement of 



the plantar tendons is as curious. 



The flexor perforans digitorum ten- 

 don leads to the third digit only, 

 while the flexor longus hallucis first sends a tendon 

 to the other plantar tendon, and a second to the 

 fourth digit, after which (if the hallux be present) 

 it splits into two tendons, one leading to the hallux, 

 the other to the second digit. 



Of the three sub-orders of the Scansores the toucans are exclusively neo- 

 tropical. They are very plentifully represented in Central and South 

 America, and are remarkable for their long, generally parti- 

 coloured bill, and for their curious feathery tongue. The 

 palate is desmognathous or "bridged," and the vomer 

 truncated. 



The toucans are about sixty in number, and are contained 

 in five genera, Wiampliastos, Andigena, Pteroglossus, Selenidera, and Aula- 

 corhamphus. The long bill, which at first sight appears so clumsy and awk- 

 ward, is really a very light structure, full of empty 

 cellules, and the colours of the bill are usually those 

 of the adjoining bare skin of the face. The birds 

 inhabit the forests and feed on fruit, and are often 

 found in company. Though they have a scansorial 

 foot, they do not climb like woodpeckers, but pro- 

 ceed by great hops, like the hornbills, from branch 

 to branch. 



The barbets are small birds with zygodactyle feet, 

 which are found in the neo-tropical, Ethiopian and 



Indian regions, but do not extend 



into the Australian region, nor are 



they found in the temperate regions 



of the Northern Zone of either 



hemisphere. Some have a bridged 

 palate, but others have the palate aegithognathous or 

 passerine. The vomer is bifid, the oil-gland tufted, 

 and there are other internal characters which separate them from the rest of 



The Toucans. 



Sub-order 

 Rhamphastides. 



The Barbets. 

 Sub-order 



Capitones. 



Fig. 8^. THE Toco TOUCAN 

 (Ramphastos toco). 



