THE TOUCAN. 



WHAT the Hornbills are to the forests of Asia and 

 Africa the Toucans are to the wild wooded regions 

 of Central and South America. 



They have the same extraordinarily long and large beak, 

 they live among the trees, they have the same habit of 

 jumping heavily from bough to bough, their food is the 

 same — fruits, seeds, insects — and they nest in holes high up 

 in the trunks of trees. But even if the distinctions which 

 a scientist could point out are not easily noticed, or not 

 understood, you may easily tell a Toucan from a Hornbill 

 by the absence of the little horny helmet above the beak. 



The colouring of the Toucans, too, is far more beautiful. 

 Not only the soft plumage and the patch of bare skin round 

 the eyes, but even the ponderous beak itself can show rich 

 and lovely colours. " In some species, and often in the 

 same bird," says J. G. Wood, "the intensest carmine, azure, 

 emerald-green, orange, and gold may be seen set off by 

 jetty black and snowy white, while in others the feathers 

 are tinged with the softest and most delicate grey, lilac, 

 pink and primrose." 



It has been regretted that these vivid colours (even 

 those of the beak) soon fade and lose their lustre after 

 death. But if this were not so, these birds would probably 

 be butchered as freely as some of their brightly dressed 

 bird-neighbours, and their wonderful feathers would be 

 packed and sent off to the auction rooms of New York, 

 and Paris, and London. 



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