476 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. 



9. R. AMBiGuus. Swains. — This species stands exactly in the 

 same situation as the last. It rests on the authority of a draw- 

 ing to which a note was appended stating that it was taken 

 " from the bird just dead." We are indebted for the publica- 

 tion of the species to the zeal of Mr. Swainson, who expresses 

 his reliance on the authenticity of the figure, in consequence of 

 the accurate accordance of several other drawings executed by 

 the same artist, and now in his own possession, with well known 

 species. I make no doubt that this and the foregoing species, 

 together with many others obscurely described by early authors, 

 will be brought to light, as the interiour of the vast territory of 

 South America, scarcely more than the outskirts of which are 

 now knov/n to naturalists, comes to be more extensively ex- 

 plored. 



Mr. Swainson has given an interesting figure of this bird,* from 

 which and his description the following characters may be drawn. 

 The throat and upper parts of the breast are yellow. The usual 

 pectoral band, somewhat narrow, and the under tail coverts are 

 scarlet : the uropygium white. The characters of the bill are in 

 Mr. Swainson's own words, as follows ; — " mandibulce superioris 

 parte superiore Jlava, transverse maculatd, striga virkli oblique 

 lUvisa : mandibuld inferiore nigra.'''' 



10. R. picATUS. Linn. — Although I have often heard of this 

 species, which is commonly known under the name of the Preacher 

 Toucan^ as being in diiFerent collections in this country, I never 

 had an opportunity of examining a specimen. I am inclined to 

 suspect that it does not belong to the present genus, but rather to 

 Pieroglossus, III. It has the bill of that group, as far at least 

 as can be judged from a single figure, the serrations of the 

 edges being strongly marked and even, and the nostrils being con- 

 spicuous at the upper part of the bill, at the base. The dispo- 

 sition of the colours are equally indicative of its connection with 

 the Pteroglossi. But the tail is represented as even in Mr. Albin's 

 figure of the bird, + the only figure I have seen of it, and des- 



* Zool, Illust. PI. 168. 



f Nat. Hist, of Birds. Vol. II. No. 25. 



