ORNITHOLOGY. 



refers only to the feather-like form of the tongue*, which in the 

 preserved specimens may be often concealed or wholly wanting. 



The bill of these birds, notwithstanding their disproportionate 

 magnitude are not to be regarded as a heavy incumbrance to the 

 beings ordained to carry them. . They are not precisely hollow, as 

 some writers describe, but of a cellular or porous nature within, 

 and are perhaps adapted to some particular purposes in their habits 

 of life which have hitherto escaped attention. They subsist on in- 

 sects and the secreted fluids of certain plants, especially the palm- 

 trees, which they mostly frequent. 



The birds of the Toucan tribe are principally confined to those 

 regions of South America which lie between the tropics ; they are 

 sociable in their nature, living together in small flocks ; the eggs are 

 white, and are usually deposited in the holes formed by wood- 

 peckers and other hard-billed birds. Our present species, which is 

 distinguished by the name of the Green Toucan is about fourteen 

 inches in length, and ib found principally in Cayenne. 



* The Linnaean name Ramphastos is taken from ^cifA,<pog- {rostrum) in 

 allusion to the enormous size of the bill, that of Pteroylossus by Illiger from 

 irriiov penna (feather) and y'^txr^cra, lingua (tongue). 



