82 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



not thicker than writing paper, and coloured by means of certain 

 membranes in the interior, which shine through the semi-trans- 

 parent horn. 



It has long been known that the ToucaL nested in hollow 

 trees, and that it preferred those cavities which could only be 

 entered by a small aperture, the reason for this predilection 

 being rather absurd. It was supposed that the young of the 

 Toucan were liable to the attacks of monkeys and large birds of 

 prey, and that whenever the parent bird was alarmed, all she 

 had to do was to poke her beak out of the aperture. The 

 assailant, on seeing such a huge biU, fancied that an animal of 

 corresponding size must be behind it, and therefore fled from so 

 doughty a foe. One writer puts this idea in a very quaint 

 manner. The monkeys, he says, are very noisome to young 

 birds, and try to pull the unfledged Toucans out of their nests. 

 But the mother bird, when she sees a monkey approaching, " so 

 settles herself in her nest as to put her bill out at the hole, and 

 gives the monkeys such a welcome therewith, that they presently 

 pack away, and glad they escape so." 



According to some writers, the Toucan makes the burrow 

 for itself, using the huge beak as the tool wherewith it excavates 

 its work. I very much doubt, however, whether the bird has 

 the power of doing so, and think that, at the most, it only adapts 

 and slightly alters the interior of the hollow, in order to suit its 

 own purposes. 



The Toucan is always a tree-loving bird, and does not wander 

 from the forests. It is a native of South America, and may 

 generally be seen perched on the topmost boughs of the lofty 

 mora-tree, far beyond the reach of the shot-gun, and requiring 

 a single bullet, or the Indian's tiny poisoned arrow, to bring it 

 from its lofty elevation. It flies only by jerks, takes no long 

 aerial journeys, and its body always seems overweighted by the 

 enormous beak, which makes the head bow downwards as the 

 bird passes through the air. 



Perhaps the Swift {Cypsclus apiis) may take rank among the 

 semi-burrowing birds. 



It always lays its long white eggs and makes its simple nest 

 in holes, and in some cases is able to form the tunnel in which 

 it breeds. When it takes up its habitation far from human 

 abodes, it contents itself with crevices in rocks, hollow trees, and 



