MUSOPHAGIDiE. 
127 
to live principally on the fruit of the Musa, or plaintain 
tree; while the touraccobirds, according to M. LeVaillant, 
feed only upon soft fruits. It is singular to observe that 
the bill in this family (in outward appearance much 
stronger than that of the finches) should yet be employed 
in procuring the softest vegetable food ; while the short 
hill, posterior nostrils, hopping gait, and purely vegetable 
food of Musophaga and Cnrythaix, are aU exemplified 
in such birds as Huceros galeatus*, and proclaim the 
affinity of the plantain-eaters to the hornbills. The 
old Linnscan unriters, indeed, seem to have had much 
clearer notions on this subject than some of the moderns ; 
for Dr. Shaw, in his last work, places Musophaga close 
to Buceros, and even points out its affinity to the tou- 
racco birds (^Corgthaix). 
(140.) ()n looking to the feet of this family, nature 
appears to have varied their construction in every possi- 
ble manner, — a clear proof that characters drawn from 
these organs often deserve only a secondary consideration. 
It is always in tenuirostral groups, whether large or 
small, that the greatest variation of the toes is observable. 
The whole of the waders furnish a striking example of 
this fact : and we see it again in the Halcyonida, in 
the genus Apternus, and other minor divisions. In fact, 
this variation must inevitably take place somewhere, or 
the feet of all birds would he the same ; and we accord- 
ingly find it in those groups which are equidistant from 
two different types, and this is precisely the situation of 
the tenuiro-stral type in ornithology. But to proceed. 
In the genus Colius, we have all the four toes brought 
forward; in the touracco birds (JJorythaix), the outer 
toe, as we have already so fully explained +, is capable 
of an outward direction. In Phytotoma, the four toes 
appear to he arranged like those of the finches ; but in 
Hyreus ()%». 171.), the very next genus, the toes are 
only three. No two genera, in fact, agree in the form- 
ation of their feet ; yet all present such a peculiarity of 
Lin. Tr. xiv. p. 579, 
f Class, of Birds, i. p. 151. 
