On some Species of the Ramphastidce. 469 



R. dicolorus ; united into one species Linnaeus's descriptions of 

 that bird and of his R. tucanus, together with the birds respec- 

 tively figured in the PI. Enl. 269 and 307 ; and apparently with- 

 out having any specimens before him, at least without referring to 

 such, has created a new species under the name of R.pectoralis. 



Of this species I have lately seen a considerable number of 

 specimens, which were brought to this country by Dr. Such from 

 the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro. They appeared to accord 

 accurately with each other, the length only of the bill being ex- 

 cepted, in which there was much difference, the bills of some 

 species exceeding tho«e of others by more than an inch. The 

 little variation in colours that thus appeared among so many spe- 

 cimens of this species, confirms me in my suspicions that there are 

 not so many varieties in the species in general of this group as 

 have been alleged. The bill of the bird may be described from 

 these specimens in conjunction with the descriptions of the before- 

 mentioned naturalists to be olivaceous or greenish yellow, paler 

 towards the base and the cul/nen, with a black band at the basal 

 margin, broader than in most of the Ramphasti, and a narrow red 

 streak along the edges of the mandibles. In most of the speci- 

 mens that have come before me, both the mandibles are margined 

 with red. But there appears some slight variation in this charac- 

 ter, as the bird from which Mr. Swainson took his figure had the 

 upper mandible only edged with that colour. Of two specimens 

 now before me, one has the bill 4 i, the other 3 -J^ inches long 

 from the rictus to the apex. In other specimens I have noticed 

 an apparently greater difference in length, but I did not take the 

 measurement. 



3. R. CARINATUS. Swains. — This is the bird figured by Mr. 

 Edwards in his 329th plate, and which seems to have been erro- 

 neously referred to by Linnaeus as identical with the preceding 

 species R. dicolorus. Mr. Swainson, to whose zeal we are in- 

 debted for much information on this family, has with great justice 

 separated this species under the above name in the text to the 

 45th plate of his Zoological Illustrations : having previously as- 

 certained the accuracy of Mr. Edwards' description and figure of 

 the bill, one of the chief characteristicks of the species, by means 



