RAMPHASTOS DICOLORUS. 



During the last eighteen months, we have seen at least sixty specimens, 

 and very frequently from eight to ten in one lot of skins. 



This singular and awkward-looking genus is confined exclusively to the 

 tropical climates of South America, and there holds the same station in the 

 ornithological world with the Hornbills of India and Africa, and the Scy- 

 throps or Rain-fowl of New Holland, to both of which tribes it approaches 

 considerably in its habits. 



It is a genus rather numerous in its species, and they all accord in a re- 

 markable degree, both in their form and colour, and in the general distribu- 

 tion of its tints : it is to this similarity that we ascribe the comparative con- 

 fusion which even yet exists among the species. The form of the body is 

 narrow and slender ; but, by the combination of short wings, a broad and 

 rounded tail, and an enormous beak, in some species almost equalling the 

 size of the whole bird, they have, when in a state of rest, a very clumsy and 

 sluggish appearance : it is, however, only when seen in a state of inactivity 

 that this opinion can prevail ; for, as soon as roused and excited by the ap- 

 pearance of food, or any other cause, they are at once all energy, their mo- 

 tions in the highest degree graceful and elegant, and apparently performed 

 with such ease and lightness, as to remove every idea raised by the seem- 

 ing weight and inconvenience of their bill. The skeleton, with the excep- 

 tion of the cervical vertebrae, is very slender, the sternum or breast-bone 

 is weak, small, and extremely narrow, and is only held in connection with 

 the rest of the skeleton by means of the ribs ; the os furcatorius being im- 

 perfect, and advancing from the clavicles on each side for about an inch 

 in a narrow pointed form, adds to the weakness of these parts, and ren- 

 ders them unfit for any predatorial habits which would require much force 

 and resistance. The cervical vertebras exhibit a greater degree of strength 

 than any of the other parts, which is required to sustain the weight and 

 disproportion of the bill ; for although that member is remarkably light, 

 the inconvenience of its size renders a greater degree of strength requisite. 

 The osseous exterior of the bill, though thin, is strong and firm, particu- 

 larly at the edges of the mandibles : the interior of it is filled with convo- 

 lutions similar to the cribriform bones in animals, and upon these, nume- 

 rous vessels are closely and minutely ramified. These, according to Dr 

 Traill of Liverpool, reach to the nostrils, are connected with the or- 

 gans of smell, and thereby give to these birds a greater extension of 

 this sense than what is generally supposed to be allotted to this tribe of 

 living creatures. From what we have seen of the habits of these birds, we 



