174



Ranging from the level of Santo Domingo up to the outer

spurs of the mountains, we found the exceedingly pretty little

Green Toucan, Aulacoramphus hcematopygici. The whole of the

bird is bright green of various shades, with some pale blue at

the base of the bill and about the breast. The primaries are

blackish olive, the rump crimson, and the tail dark bluish green

with deep chestnut tips to the feathers. The skin around the

eyes is red, and the bill uniform dark red shaded with black, and

a pure white line at the base, much wider on the lower than on

the upper mandible. This is another Ecuadorian bird which is

found on the Eastern side, with a slight change in the markings.

The difference is that A. albivitta has a greyish white throat, and

greenish yellow on the bill.


I now come to that beautiful group of Andigena, which

inhabit the highest altitudes of all the Rhamphastidce. There is

only one member that I know of found on the Western side,

namely the A. laminirostris. These birds inhabit a region

between 5,000 ft. to 6,000 ft., and like all the Andigena, live in

pairs only. The total length of the bird is 173-in., of which the

bill measures 3^iu. and the tail 6jin. They have a far thicker

covering of feathers than other Toucans, which at once shows

that the Andigena are made to stand a much colder climate. I

have never seen any of these birds in captivity, and yet above all

other kinds of Toucans, they are admirably suited for our

climate, even to wintering out of doors. The prevailing colour

of most of them is mauvish blue. The laminirostris has

the whole of the breast and underparts of this colour, and

it extends in a lighter and still brighter shade almost right round

the neck. The head and nape are velvety black, and the wings

and back are rich olive tobacco colour, the flanks are orange, the

rump primrose, the vent and thighs chestnut. The tail is slaty

blue 011 the upper surface with deep tips of pale fawn. The bill

is black and very red at the base, and the upper mandible has a

very curious sheath-like piece on each side at the base, itlin.

long. One half of this is creamy yellow and looks for all the

world as if an outer casing of the bill had been taken off,

leaving only this irregular piece on each side. The pieces being

partially detached from the bill itself, still further emphasize

this effect. At Papallacta, on the Eastern side, we shot some

still more beautiful members of this genus, the A. hypoglaucus,

and just a little lower down, A. spilorhynchus. It was the former

Toucan which has such an exquisite bill, that I was thinking of

when I wrote my February article, and mentioned it as coming



