Toucans and Honey^guides 



509 



never so ornamented. The solid appearance of the beak in the toucan, l^y tlie way, is as much 

 a fiction as with the hornbill, since the horny slieath is supported, not on a core of solid bone, 

 but on a frame of delicate bony irligree-work, the spaces being filled fiy air. The coloration of 

 the plumage (which is Somewhat loone in character), as well as of the bare skin round tlie eye and 

 the beak-sheath, is most brilliant, and displays immense variation amongst the different species. 



Shy and restless in their habits, toucans travel generally in small flocks amongst the forest- 

 trees and nrangrove-swamps in search of food, which consists mainly of fruits and seeds, 

 varying this diet occasionally with ants and caterpillars. It is to this diet of fruit that the 

 great size of the bill and its peculiar saw-like edges are to be traced — at least this is the 



opinion of the great traveller-naturalist Bates, who had so many opp)ortunities of watching 



these birds. " Flowers and fruit," he writes, "on the crowns of the large trees of South American 



forests grow principally towards the end of slender twigs, which will not bear any considerable 



weight. All animals, therefore, which feed principally upon fruit, or on insects contained in 



flowers, must, of course, have some means of reaching the ends of the stalks from a distance. 



Monkeys obtain their food by stretching forth their long arms, and in some instances their 



tails, to bring the fruit near to their 



mouths ; humming-birds are endowed ' 



with highly perfected organs of flight, 



with corresponding muscular development, 



by which they are enabled to sustain 



themselves on the wing before blossoms 



whilst rifling them of their contents; 



fand the lona: bill of the toucan enables 



it] to reach and devour fruit whilst 



remaining seated, and thus to counter- 

 balance the disadvantage which its heavy 



body and gluttonous appetite would 



otherwise give it in the competition with 



allied groups of birds." 



Toucans appear to be much esteemed 



as articles of food — at least during the 



months of June and July, when these 



birds get very fat, the flesh being ex- 

 ceedingly sweet and tender. They nest 



in holes of trees at a great height from 



the ground, and lay white eggs. 



One of the most remarkable of the group is the Cukl-crested Toucan, fr 



Fhoto bu A. 8. Ri'dladd i Sons. 



TROGON. 

 Tiomns haunt the vecesaes of the thickest forests. 



the fact 



that the feathers on the crown of the head are peculiarly modified to form seroU-hke, glossy 

 curls, which have been compared to shavings of steel or ebony. Mr. Bates writes : " I had an 

 amusing adventure one day with one of these birds. I had shot one from a rather high tree 

 in a dark glen in the forest, and entered the thicket where the bird had fallen to secure my booty. 

 It was only wounded, and on my attempting to seize it set up a loud scream. In an mstant, 

 as if by ma-ic, the shady nook seemed alive with these birds, although there was certainly 

 none visible when I entered the jungle. They descended towards me, hopping from bough to 

 bouch, some of them swinging on the loops and cables of woody lianas, and all croaking and 

 flutrering their wings like so many furies. If I had had a long stick in my hand, I could 

 have knocked several of them over. After killing the wounded one, I begari to prepare for 

 obtaining more specimens and punishing the viragos for their boldness. But the screammg of 

 their- companion having ceased, they remounted the trees, and before I could reload every one 



of them had disappeared." „ .r • i- 1 1 



With neither charm of colour nor peculiar shape, the small African birds known as 

 Honey-guides are some of the most remarkable of birds, and this on account of a quite 



