352 



A VES— ORDER SCANSORES. 



coloration, but the majority are brilliantly plumaged 

 generally called "Lowries" by the colonists of South 



Tig. 84.— Ladt Eoss 



TOURACOE 



and of a dull 

 birds, and are 

 Africa. 



In the true touracoes (Tiiracus) the nostrils are hidden by bristles; in all 

 the other genera they are exposed. In the genus Musophaga, of which M. 

 rossce, from Angola and the Congo basin, is an ex- 

 ample, there is not only an ornamental frontal shield 

 of red, but the primary quills are of a deep crimson, 

 as they are in all the members of the genus Turacus. 

 From the wing-feathers of these birds has been ex- 

 tracted a kind of copper called turacine. The nest 

 of the touracoes is an open one, made of sticks, and 

 the egg is white. 



In all the Scansores the foot is typically zygo- 

 dactyle, the first and fourth toes being turned 

 backwards, the second and third 

 The Climbing forwards, and the arrangement of 

 Birds. — Order the plantar tendons is as curious. 

 Scansores. The flexor performis digitorum ten- 

 don leads to the third digit only, 

 while the flexor longus hallueis first sends a tendon 

 to the other plantar tendon, and a second to the 

 fourth digit, after which (if the hallux be present) 

 it splits into two tendons, one leading to the hallux, 

 the other to the second digit. 



Of the three sub-orders of the Scanso^-es the toucans are exclusively neo- 

 tropical. They are very plentifully represented in Central and South 

 America, and are remarkable for their long, generally parti- 

 Tlie Toucans. — coloured bill, and for their curious feathery tongue. The 

 Sub-order palate is desmognathous or "bridged," and the vomer 

 Rhamphastides. truncated. 



The toucans are about sixty in number, and are contained 

 in five genera, Ehamphastos, Andigena, Pteroglossxis, Selenidera, and Avla- 

 corhamphus. The long bill, which at first sight appears so clumsy and awk- 

 ward, is really a very light structure, full of empty 

 cellules, and the colours of the bill are usually those 

 of the adjoining bare skin of the face. The birds 

 inhabit the forests and feed on fruit, and are often 

 found in company. Though they have a scansorial 

 foot, they do not climb like woodpeckers, but pro- 

 ceed by great hops, like the hornbillsj from branch 

 to branch. 



The barbets are small birds with zygodactyle feet, 



which are found in the neo-tropical, Ethiopian and 



Indian regions, but do not extend 



The Barbets. — ■ into the Australian region, nor are 



Sub-order they found in the temperate regions 



Capitones. of the Northern Zone of either 



hemisphere. Some have a bridged 



palate, but others Iiave the palate JBgithognathous or 



passerine. The vomer is bifid, the oil-gland tutted, 



and there are other internal characters which separate them from the rest of 



,_ 8i.— Thk Toco Tocoan 

 (Hamphastos toco). 



