480 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. 



seems to be much indebted to his fondness for bathing. Every 

 day he immerses himself in cold water with apparent pleasure 

 even in this severe weather; and in no respect indeed does he 

 appear to suffer by the transition from his own warm climate to 

 our uncongenial atmosphere. 



Besides the ^' hollow clattering noise," as my friend Mr. 

 Broderip so expressively terms the usual sounds of these birds, he 

 utters at times a hoarse and somewhat discordant cry, when he 

 happens to be hungry, and to see his food about to be presented 

 to him. On such occasions he stands erect, raising his head in 

 the air, and half opening his bill as he emits this cry. These 

 are the only sounds I have heard him utter. And in neither can 

 I say that I have detected any similarity or even approach to the 

 word Toucan^ as has sometimes been asserted, and from whence 

 the trivial name of the genus has been supposed to originate. 

 Neither have I been able to verify another observation which has 

 been advanced respecting these birds, — that the bill is compressi- 

 ble between the fingers in the living bird. The bill, notwith- 

 standing the lightness of its substance, is firm, and capable of 

 grasping an object with much strength. The mode in which Mr. 

 Broderip describes his Toucan as having broken the limbs of the 

 bird which he was about to devour, by " a strong lateral wrench," 

 sufficiently shows that the bill is not deficient in power. Indeed 

 I generally observe that my bird takes what is offered him, rather 

 by the sides than by the point of his bill : and I suspect that 

 much of the powers of that member are centered in this lateral 

 motion. The serration of the edges also may be supposed to tend 

 to these peculiar powers. 



The manner in which he composes himself to rest is repre- 

 sented in the accompanying plate. Since the cold weather has 

 commenced he has been brought into a room with a fire, and the 

 unusual light seems to have interfered with his general habits : 

 he does not go to rest as early or as regularly as was his custom ; 

 and he sometimes even feeds at a late hour. During the warmer 

 months, however, when he was more free from interruption, his 

 habits were singularly regular. As the dusk of the evening ap- 

 proached he finished his last meal for the day, took a few turns, 



