Family Ramphastidce. 189 



plumage, varying in many instances only by a difference in the 

 distribution of the markings, required much discrimination to dis- 

 tinguish what had been esteemed species ; and the brilliant colours 

 of the bill, equally varied, and as closely allied in their distribu- 

 tion, and fading immediately after death, rendered accurate and 

 carefully coloured plates the only way to preserve a similitude of the 

 original tints. Our illustrations were contained in the works of Vail- 

 lant and Vieillot, both not easily procured, or they were to be found 

 among the scattered plates of other ornithologists. Wagler,* in 1827, 

 published the first part of his Systema Avium, describing twelve 

 species of Ramphastos and fourteen Pleroglossi, and in general his 

 descriptions are characterized by great correctness. They are the 

 latest, and were looked upon as the best and most authentic. In the 

 monograph before us, some of that naturalist's species are made sy- 

 nonymous with those of the older writers, and with Mr Gould's fi- 

 gures, while one or two are left apparently unaccounted for. This 

 it will now be our endeavour as far as possible to point out, and we 

 suspect that ere long another fasciculus will be required for the re- 

 presentation of additional birds. 



In the true Toucans {Ramphastos,) the colours of the plumage are 

 invariably black, white, red, or yellow, the throat and upper part of the 

 breast, the rump and under tail coverts exhibiting the latter colours, 

 while the body, wings, and tail are always dark. Ornithologists 

 have taken their divisions from these ; Wagler makes two, with the 

 breast white, or with the breast yellow ; Mr Gould separates them 

 into four, A. B. C. D., combining with the colours of the breast those 

 of the tail and coverts ; but in a group so limited, the first is perhaps 

 sufficient for every artificial purpose, and his third division C, is 

 only characterized by a species, which is confessedly intermediate be- 

 tween it and the fourth or D. In the first four species of the mono- 

 graph we see a great alliance in colour ; they are all white, or nearly 

 white-breasted, banded beneath narrowly with red, and the distin- 

 guishing marks are seen on the rump and tail coverts by yellow or 

 red, and in the form and colour of the bill. R. culminatus, Gould, 

 is given as undescribed ; it has nothing near it in Wagler, except R. 

 Cuvierii, Wagl. but seems at once distinguished from it, by the 

 great size of the bill, its more gradual bend, and different form. R. 

 citreopigeus, Gould, from the collection of Mr Swainson, seems a well 



* This excellent ornithologist met with an untimely death in 1833, while on 

 a shooting excursion near Munich : his gun. exploded with fatal effect, while he 

 was in the act of passing through a hedge — Gould's Monograph. 



