416 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



jerk of the tail by suddenly combining with the elevator muscles. The peculiar 

 structure of the tail is also manifested by its unusual elongation, as is evident from an 

 inspection of Fig. 172 (p. 370). 



The toucans are confined to the warmer portions of the Neotropical region, and 

 do not occur in the West Indies. They are equally characteristic of the tropical 

 parts of America as are the two foregoing families, and have no near relatives among 

 the Old World birds, though their enormous large and serrated bills offer an analogy 



FIG. 207. Pleroglossus wledii, Maximilian's aragari. 



to the hornbills, with which they are often confounded in the popular mind. There 

 are a little more than fifty species, varying in size from that of a robin to that of a 

 crow, the smaller forms having proportionately smaller bills than the larger ones. The 

 former are usually more or less greenish, with brown and yellow ; while the latter have 

 the greater part of the plumage black, relieved by the gorgeous coloration of the 

 foreneck, upper and under tail-coverts in red, yellow, and white. The naked eye-space 

 and the huge bill are also painted most vividly and characteristically. The 



