R A M P H A S T O S Dicolorus, 

 YelloW'billed Toucan, 



Generic Character. — See PI. 45, 



Specific Character. 

 R. niger, guM aured ; fascid pectorali latd tegminibusqiie rubris i 



rostro xiridi-Jiavo, bast fascid nigrd transfer sd ornatd ; mandi- 



bulce superioris margine laterali riibro ; cubnine piano. 

 Black ; throat golden-yellow ; broad pectoral band and tail-covers 



red; bill greenish-yellow, the base with a transverse black 



band, and the lateral margins of the upper mandible red; 



the top flat. 

 R. dicolorus. Gm. p. 356. Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 135. 2. Turton. 



•col.i. 211. 

 Yellow throated Toucan. LafL Syn. 1. 325. Turton. 1. 211. 



Brisson. Orn. 4. p. 4:\\.pl. 31./. 1. Buffon PL Enl. 269. 

 Le petit Toucan a ventre rouge. Vaill. H. N. des Toucans, pi. 8. 



(optime). 



This is the smallest species of the genuine Toucans yet 

 known, inhabiting, though sparingly, the northern and 

 southern extremities of tropical America. It is a species 

 which seems to have been well understood by Linnaeus and 

 the older ornithologists, though none of them have de- 

 scribed the form or peculiarities of the bill ; it is probably 

 owing to this omission, that Dr. Shaw has created an 

 imaginary species in General Zoology, under the name of 

 R. pectoralis; compounded of the descriptions he gathered 

 of this bird, and the Linnoean R. tucarms. Dr. Latham's 

 description is also inaccurate; nor is it improved in the 

 new edition of his Synopsis, probably from not having him- 

 self seen the bird. Of the figures, there is a masterly de- 

 lineation by Barraband, in Le Vaillant's work, but those of 

 Buffon and Brisson are not to be trusted. 



Total length about sixteen inches : bill three and a half; 

 it is shorter and much thicker along the back, than that 

 of any other species; this part also is broad, and quite flat; 

 the serratures of the margin small, and the upper mandible 

 only edged with a hne of red ; the sides are compressed, 

 and the colours greenish-yellow ; the orbits chesnut-red, and 

 the feet (as in all the Toucans when fresh) delicate fine blue. 



Dr. Langsdorff favoured me with a specimen of this rare 

 bird, shot by himself in Southern Brazil ; the sexes have been 

 dissected by that able naturalist, but to which the one here 

 figured belongs, I am unacquainted. 



PI. 108. 



