544< CLASS AVES. 



fearful nor wild, and never fly to any great distance. They 

 are not even much alarmed by the report of fire-arms. It is 

 easy to bring down many of them in succession ; but they are 

 in no great request, for their flesh is uneatable : and even 

 when alive they have a disagreeable odour. They are, as 

 might be expected, easily tamed ; and it is said that when 

 taken young they can be as well educated as the parrot, and 

 even taught to speak. They are found in great numbers in 

 Brazil, Guiana, Mexico, St. Domingo, and always in compa- 

 ratively open places, a little shady, but never in thick woods. 



The most particularly striking character in the genus 

 Toucan is the bulk and length of the bill. In its whole 

 extent it is wider than the head, and in some species it is as 

 long as the entire body. This enormous bill is a cavernous 

 body, filled with empty cells, separated by partitions of an 

 osseous substance, as thin as a sheet of paper, and covered 

 again by an expansion of corneous substance, of so little 

 solidity that it opposes no resistance to the slightest pres- 

 sure of the finger. 



The upper mandible is curved downwards, in the form of a 

 scythe. The lower is shorter, more narrow, and less curved. 

 Both are dentelated on the edges, but the dentelations of the 

 upper are much more marked than those of the under man 

 dible. These dentelations, though equal in number on each 

 side of the mandibles, not only do not correspond above and 

 below, but even do not stand in a relative position on the 

 right and left. 



The tongue of the toucan is still more extraordinary 

 than the bill. It is rather a feather than a tongue, the 

 middle or stalk of which is of a cartilaginous substance, about 

 two lines broad, accompanied on each side by closely ser- 

 rated cartilaginous barbs, conformed exactly like those of 

 an ordinary feather. These barbs are directed forward, and 

 are more long in proportion as they are situated nearer the 

 extremity of the tongue. 



