HOxMKS or TOUCANS 187 



to which wc confiiK'd our studies wc J'ouud tlic follow iiii>- 

 five species of toucans: 



Ked-hilled Toucan NJniin ])]/asf().^ moii'iVis Muller 

 Sul])liur-and-white-hreaste(i 



Toucan liham pluistos viicUinus l.iciit. 



Black-necked .\racari Ptcroc/lossiis aracfiri (l.inn.) 



Green Aracari Pterof/Iossufi viridis (iiiiin.) 



Guiana Toucanet ScJcu'tdcvd ciiVih- (Waaler) 



Between the dates of ^larch 15 and INI ay 10, we had 

 evidence, either direct, or in(lisi)uta])ly cii-cunistantial, of the 

 breeding of all five species, and had secured })oth e^-^s and 

 vouno' birds. But these results came onlv aftei" davs and 

 weeks of hard, unremitting search, of long tram])s wholly in 

 vain, and of manv consecutive hours of steadv watching 

 through heat and rain. 



GEEEX ARACARI TOUCAN 



Ptet'ogloss u s viridis 



On the eighth of JNIarch, Hartley returned to Kala- 

 coon with the exciting news that he had seen small aracari 

 toucans entering a hole high up in a dead tree. This was 

 the commonest species of toucan in Bartica district, and 

 this observation was the first to arouse the hopes of an occu- 

 pied nest. The dead tree stood at the edge of the jungle 

 about a mile aw^av, and was one of the manv which had been 

 killed by direct exposure to the sun's raj^s when the clear- 

 ing had been made nearby. Its barkless branches stretched 

 high above the surrounding massed foliage, })leached, chalky 

 white, and seasoned hard as iron. On one of the uppermost 

 angles this pair of toucans perched, and worked in alternate 

 shifts at an old woodpecker's hole. They propped them- 

 selves against the tree, thrust their great beaks within the 

 hole, and presently drew out and dropped bits of loose, rot- 

 ten wood. Thus began the nesting of the green aracaris 

 on March 8. 



