WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 183 



mandible is sky blue. It is worthy of remark that all 

 these brilliant colours of the bill are to be found in the 

 plumage of the body, and the bare skin round the eye. 



All these colours, except the blue, arc inherent in the 

 horn ; that part which appears blue is in reality transpar- 

 ent white, and receives its colour from a thin piece of blue 

 skin inside. This superb bill fades in death, and in three 

 or four days' time has quite lost its original colours. 



Till within these few years, no idea of the true colours 

 of the bill could be formed from the stuffed toucans brought 

 to Europe. About eight years ago, while eating a boiled 

 toucan, the thought struck me that the colours in the bill 

 of a preserved specimen might be kept as bright as those 

 in life. A series of experiments proved this beyond a 

 doubt. If you take your penknife and cut away the roof 

 of tlie upper mandible, you will find that the space betwi.xt 

 it and the outer shell contains a large collection of veins, 

 and small osseous fibres running in all directions through 

 the whole extent of the bill. Clear away all these with 

 your knife, and you will come to a substance more firm 

 than skin, but of not so strong a texture as the horn itself ; 

 cut this away also, and behind it is discovered a thin and 

 tender membrane; yellow, where it has touched the yel- 

 low part of the horn ; blue, where it has touched the red 

 part, and black towards the edge and point; when dried, 

 this thin and tender membrane becomes nearly black ; as 

 soon as it is cut away, nothing remains but the outer horn, 

 red and yellow, and now become transparent ; the under 

 mandible must undergo the same operation. Great care 

 must be taken, and the knife used very cautiously when 

 you are cutting through the different parts close to where 

 the bill joins on to the head ; if you cut away too much, 

 the bill drops off; if you press too hard, the knife comes 

 through the horn : if vou leave too great a portion of the 



