RAMPHASTOS DICOLORUS. 



cannot perceive that they are endowed with more than the ordinary powers 

 of smelling : such is not at all necessary for procuring the food upon which 

 they in general live ; and we strongly think, that this structure of their 

 bills, as well as the disproportion of size, which we also find developed in 

 a still more extraordinary degree in the genus Buceros, is applied, and no 

 doubt well adapted, to some part of their economy, of which we are still 

 ignorant. The species are all solitary, never appearing together in flocks. 

 They very much resemble our common Magpie or Jay in their general 

 manners : in their flight, and their manner of hopping from branch to 

 branch, or on the perches of their cage, and in the motions of their wings 

 and tail they are perfectly similar : they also correspond with most of the 

 weaker Pica in the nature of their food, which consists of small or young 

 birds, eggs, and juicy fruits. Animal food, however, seems to be their 

 greatest luxury ; for although they appear extremely fond of a peach or 

 nectarine, and continue in a perfectly healthy condition, when fed exclu- 

 sively upon these or similar fruits, yet they are instantly laid aside and 

 despised, when a young bird or a piece of raw meat is presented to them ; 

 and the eagerness with which they retain and devour either of these, is a 

 sufficient proof hnw agreeably it suits their taste. Their mode of eating 

 any thing of this kind is so extremely carious, that we have been induced to 

 copy a very interesting account written by Mr Broderip in the Zoologi- 

 cal Journal, and which conveys a better idea of it than any we could now 

 give. 



" After looking at the bird which was the object of my visit, and which 

 was apparently in the highest state of health, I asked the proprietor to 

 bring up a little bird, that I might see how the Toucan would be affected 

 by its appearance. The proprietor soon returned, bringing with him a 

 goldfinch, a last year's bird. The instant he introduced his hand with the 

 goldfinch into the cage of the Toucan, the latter, which was on a perch, 

 snatched it with his bill. The poor little bird had only time to utter a 

 short weak cry ; for, within a second, it was dead, killed by compression on 

 the sternum and abdomen, and that so powerful that the bowels were pro- 

 truded after a very few squeezes of the Toucan's bill. As soon as the 

 goldfinch was dead, the Toucan hopped with it still in his bill to another 

 perch, and placing it with his bill between his right foot and the perch, 

 began to strip off the feathers with his bill. When he had plucked away 

 most of them, he broke the bones of the wings and legs (still holding the 

 little bird in the same position) with his bill, taking the limbs therein, and 

 3 k 2 



