64 FACtJLTIES^OF BIRDS. 



maximum inane/ &c.; and Buffon has eloquently 

 enlarged on the supposed error, or oversight of nature, 

 in furnishing so small a bird with a bill so monstrous 

 and useless, My friend Charles Waterton, Esq., 

 who has lately returned from the interior of Guyana, 

 had observed, that when a portion of the bill of a 

 toucan is shot away, the remainder bleeds profusely; 

 and on immersing the bill of a recently-killed bird in 

 hot water, he was enabled to detach from the exterior 

 covering of the bill a horny substance, which filled its 

 whole cavity, consisting of a delicate net-work of bony 

 matter in the interior, surrounded by thin plates of 

 the same material. On these bony partitions a great 

 number of blood-vessels are distinctly ramified in the 

 living animal. This gentleman favoured me with a 

 specimen thus prepared ; in carefully examining which, 

 I found that the nostrils conducted to the internal 

 cells of the substance within the upper mandible. 



" From this observation, and the great vascularity 

 of the part, I concluded that the bill is not a useless 

 incumbrance, as Buffon rashly conjectured ; but that 

 it is an admirable contrivance of nature to increase the 

 delicacy of the organ of smell in a species whose 

 residence and habits require great nicety in that sense. 

 As the animal is incapable of either tearing or bruising 

 its food, it necessarily must feed on small substances. 

 Its aliment is said chiefly to consist of small fruits 

 or seeds ; and for readily attaining these in the wilds 

 of almost impenetrable forests, an acute organ of 

 smell is no doubt requisite. Instead, then, of regard- 

 ing the bill of the toucan as a useless load, I am 

 disposed to consider it as an instance of that wisdom 

 and contrivance which attentive observation every 

 where discovers in the works of nature." 



According to Azara, toucans destroy a great num- 

 ber of living birds, attacking them, chasing them 

 from their nests, and devouring the eggs or young, 



