F.ED-BEAKED TOUCAX, 
their head in different positions. Their form, 
their figure, their shape, &:c. refer to the ap- 
pearance of their body and of it's members. 
In birds, it is easy to perceive, that such as 
have a small head, and a short slender bill, 
exhibit a delicate, pleasing, and sprightlv phy- 
siognomy : those, on the contrary, with an 
over- proportioned head, such as the Barbets-; 
or, with a bill as large as the head, such as the 
Toucans ; have an air of stupidity, which sel- 
dom falsifies their natural talents. Any person, 
on beholding a Toucan for the first time, might 
take the head and bill, in a front view, to be 
one of those long-nosed masks which terrify 
children: but, when he seriously examined 
this enormous produ^^ion, he would be sur- 
prised that nature had given so huge a bill to a 
bird of such moderate size; and his astonish- 
ment would increase, on refletfling that it was 
useless, and even burdensome, to it's owner, 
obliging it to swallow it's food whole, withou: 
cither dividing or crushing. So tar, too, is 
this bill from serving the bird as an instnmient 
of defence, or even as a ctnintcrpoisc, that it 
a^^s like a weP2,ht on a leyer, which tends 
constantly to destroy the bahmce, and occasion 
a sort 
