THE ARIEL TOUCAN. 75 



leisure. Even the eggs and young of the maccaws and 

 other equally large birds are stated occasionally to fall 

 victims to their propensity for preying on the progeny 

 of their neighbours. These delicacies form their prin- 

 cipal nutriment during the season in which they are 

 to be procured ; but when that is passed away, the 

 Toucans return to their vegetable diet, and never 

 attempt, it is said, to molest the older birds. Their 

 flight is low and heavy, and generally in a straight 

 horizontal line. They perch, in groups of eight or ten 

 together, on the summits of the loftiest trees, and are 

 seen, in almost constant motion, hopping from branch 

 to branch with the greatest quickness. In flying, the 

 point of their beak is directed forwards ; and this posi- 

 tion, together with its extreme lightness, prevents it 

 from overbalancing their body. Their tongue, from its 

 inflexibility, is quite useless as a means of guiding their 

 food to its proper destination. It is for this reason 

 that in feeding they first seize the morsel, whatever it 

 may be, either with the sides or point of their bill, and 

 then jerking it upwards in the air, let it fall at once 

 into their widely distended throat. They build their 

 nests in the hollows of trees, and lay but two eggs 

 at a time. 



The beautiful bird represented at the head of the 

 present article was first described by Mr. Vigors, in 

 the Zoological Journal, about four years ago, from the 

 actual specimen now living in the Society's Collection, 

 and then in his own possession. From the account 

 there given the following particulars are in a great 

 measure abstracted. The entire length is about eighteen 

 inches, of which the bill forms more than three, and 

 the tail upwards of seven. The whole upper surface, the 

 abdomen, wings, and tail, are of a bright black ; the 

 throat, neck, and cheeks, of an orange-yellow, with a 

 narrow straw-coloured border beneath ; the naked skin 



