SCANSORES. 
217 
by a sharp vertical crest [like that of several of the smaller Hornbills]. They are birds of the hot and 
humid climates of America, with stout and elevated tarsi, a long and rounded tail [composed of only 
eight feathers], and black plumage. They subsist on insects and grain, fly in flocks, and several pairs 
lav and incubate in the same nest, which is placed on the branches of trees, and is built of a 
size proportionate to the number of couples which help to construct it. They are easily tamed, and 
even taught to speak ; but their flesh is rank and disagreeable. 
[The similarity of the colour and size of these birds to the Quiscali and Scolepkaffi, (p. 202), which inhabit the 
same countries, has occasioned much confusion in their history. It is the latter, and not the Ani, which are 
granivorous ; and which also are easily tamed and taught to speak, the Ani having no accessory vocal muscles, 
and consequently only uttering a particular screech. The name Crotophaga implies that they feed on the insect 
parasites of cattle, like the common Starling ; which is not true of the Ani, though it applies to the birds 
with which they have been confounded. The Ani strictly appertain to the Cuckoo group, and are remarkable for 
possessing eyelashes like the Coucals and Hornbills : though inhabitants of the hottest regions of America, they 
are remarkably solicitous for w armth, and soon perish of the least chill ; hence their singular sociality even while 
brooding on their eggs, which are of a dark green colour. Several species are now known, and they appear to 
subsist exclusively on insects.] 
The Toucans {Rhamphastos, Lin.) — 
Are at once recognized by the enormous size of the bill, which is nearly as large and as long as the 
body itself, but internally very light and cellular, [or rather permeated by a fragile network of osseous 
fibres], having its edges dentated, and both mandibles arched towards the tip; the tongue is narrow 
and elongated, and laterally barbed like a feather. They are peculiar to the warm regions of America, 
where they live in small troops, [different species of them commonly associating in the same flock], 
and subsist on fruit and insects, and during the nesting season on the eggs and young of other birds. 
The structure of the bill necessitates them to throw each morsel of food into the air, and catch it in 
the throat ; [a habit practised by many other birds in which the tongue is either unusually short, or 
of a form unfit to assist in deglutition]. Their feet are short [not particularly so] ; their wdngs hut 
moderate, and tail rather lengthened, [and commonly held erect ; it consists of ten feathers]. They 
nestle in the trunks of trees [producing, in every known instance, two delicately white eggs, of a 
rotund form : the young recurve their tails upon the back while in the nest. 
These birds have a doubly emarginated ster- 
num of peculiar form (fig. 103), a slightly muscu- 
lar stomach, and short intestines without coeca ; 
they have no gall-bladder. Their movements are 
light and elegant in an extreme degree, leaping 
from bough to bough with the most lightsome 
agility, so that, in the living bird, the beak has 
no appearance whatever of being disproportion- 
ately large. They fly rapidly, but evidently with 
much exertion, and with difficulty against the 
wind, raising the bill above the axis of the body, 
and propelling themselves at short intervals : 
are exceedingly destructive to the eggs and young 
of other birds, which they frequently obtain by 
dipping their huge bill into the deep pensile nests 
which abound in their indigenous abode, that 
organ being remarkably sensitive, which enables 
them to feel the contents. When roosting at 
night, they contrive to bury their enormous beak 
completely between the scapulary and intersca- 
pulary feathers ; and they employ it with singular 
dexterity, and are often observed to scratch it 
gently with the foot, as if that produced an agreeable sensation : many nervous papillae are distributed over its 
surface]. 
The Restricted Toucans — 
Have the beak thicker than the head, and are generally black, with vivid colours on the throat, breast, 
and croup. [Their size is comparatively large, both sexes are alike in plumage, the tail is less 
cuneated, the clavicle bones are separate, short, and pointed, not joined to constitute a.furcula. as in 
Birds in general.] 
^ The Aricaris (Pteroglossus, Illiger) — 
Have the beak not so thick as the head, and enveloped with a less attenuated corneous covering ; their 
Fig. 103. — Sternum of Aricari. 
