328 BULLETIN" 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



• 



with the mmunum of weight." The tongue is also peculiar, consist- 

 ing of a "long, narrow, thin lamina, flattened horizontally and 

 supported by the anterior process of the hyoid bone, which forms a 

 ridge beneath it. It measures nearly six inches in length in the 

 large species [of Ramphastos]. At about four inches from its 

 extremity it is obliquely notched on both sides, and these notches 

 become deeper and deeper toward the apex, giving it a strongly 

 bristled appearance." (Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xix, p. 122.) 



FamUy RAMPHASTIDiE. 



THE TOUCANS. 



=[ZygodactyK] Pteroglossi Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, 26. 



=Ramphastidss Bonaparte, Saggio distr. An. Vert., 1831, 41; Prodr. Syst. Om., 



1840, 16; Consp. Av., i, 1850, 92.— Solatek, Cat. Am. Birds, 1862, 324.— 



LiLLjEBOEG, Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud., 1866, 16. — Stejnbgee, Stand. Nat. 



Hist., iv, 1885, 412, 414, in text. 

 =Rhamphastidx Nitzsch, Syst. Pterylog., 1840, 135. — Sclateb and Salvin, 



Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, pp. 108. — F,trERBBiNQEE, Unters. Morph. Syst. 



V6g., ii, 1888, 1391. — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, ii, 1896, 



551.— Shaspe, Hand-list, ii, 1900, 189. 

 =Ea'mphastinx Bonaparte, Prodr. Syst. Om., 1840, 17; Consp. Av., i, 1850, 92. 

 =Rhamphastinse Cabanis, in Wiegmann's ArcMv fiir Naturg., 1847, i, 348. — 



SuNBEVALL, Met. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., ii, 1873, 75 (English tiamlation, 



1889, 148). 



The characters of the family Kamphastidse are the same as those of 

 the superf anuly Ramphastides (as given on pp. 2, 327), the latter con- 

 taining only this one family. 



The Ramphastidse are peculiar to the continental portion of tropical 

 America, rangiag from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, their 

 southward distribution along the Pacific coast district being limited 

 by the Gulf of Guayaquil, in Ecuador. Of the five genera and sixty 

 species recognized in Sharpe's Hand-list of the Genera and Species 

 of Birds (vol. ii, 1900, pp. 189-193), four of the former but only ten 

 of the latter occur from Panama northward, the family being most 

 numerously represented ia the valley of the Amazon and contiguous 

 regions of the Guianas, Venezuela, and Colombia. 



The Toucans are forest birds of arboreal habits and feed chiefly on 

 fruits, though in captivity, at least, they are completely omnivorous; 

 and it is said that in the wild state they destroy the eggs and young 

 of other birds, after the well-known habit of members of the Corvidse. 

 Little is known of their nesting habits, but so far as these have been 



a This structure is elaborately described and illustrated by Sir Richard Owen in 

 the "Introduction" to Gould's "Monograph of the Ramphastidse." See also Stej- 

 negerin "Standard Natural History," Birds, pp. 414-415. 



