RAMPHASTOS AMBIGUUS, Swains. 
Doubtful Toucan. 
Specific Character. 
“ Ramph. niger ; jugulo flavo ; mandibular superioris parte superiore flava, transverse maculata, 
striga viridi oblique divisd; mandibula inferiore nigra” —Swainson. 
General plumage black, with a tinge of rufous at the back of the neck and a greenish gloss on 
the wings, body and tail; throat rich yellow, bounded below by a narrow line of yellowish 
white, to which succeeds a broader one of blood-red ; upper tail-coverts creamy white ; 
under tail-coverts blood-red ; upper mandible obliquely divided for about three-fourths 
of its length from the base by a strongly defined streak of black, the space below which 
is chocolate-black, and that above yellow, traversed by a broad streak of green ; under 
mandible chocolate-black at the base, passing into black towards the tip ; orbits blue ?; 
legs and feet blue above, lilac beneath. 
Total length, 20 inches; bill, 5i; wing, 81; tail, 6i; tarsi, 11. 
Ramphastos ambiguus, Swains. Zool. 111. 1st Ser., vol. iii. pi. 168. 
- Swainsonii , Gould, Mon. of Ramph., pi. 8, lower figure.—lb. Sturm’s Edit., 
pi. , lower figure. 
However much I may have been perplexed by the Mexican Keel-billed Toucans, I have been ten times 
more so by the Columbian species known under the name of Toeard, to which in the former edition of this 
work I gave the name of Swainsom, believing as I did that the Toeard of Le Vaillant and the Ramphastos 
ambiguus of Swainson were one and the same species ; I am now, however, induced to regard them as 
distinct, in consequence of having recently seen in some of the continental Museums, and lately received 
in a collection of birds from the neighbourhood of Bogota, several examples which precisely accord with 
Swainson’s figure of his Ramphastos ambiguus, and which differ from the R. Toeard in having smaller and 
straighter bills, with all the space beneath the oblique band purplish black, and with a distinct trace of 
the green mark along the sides of the yellow portion of the upper mandible so conspicuous in Swainson’s 
drawing ; I have determined therefore upon restoring that appellation to the bird for which Mr. Swainson 
doubtless intended it, and which I believe to be quite distinct from the R. Toeard. Some variation 
appears to exist in the colouring of the hare skin round the eye. Mr. Mark, Her Majesty’s Consul at 
Bogota, tells me it is bluish green. Dr. Tschudi, who collected specimens in Peru, says it is blue, which 
on examination I found to be the case, so far as could be judged from the appearance of his specimen in 
the Museum at Neufchatel. Swainson, who states that his figure was taken from a drawing made from 
the bird immediately after death, also represents it blue : the diversity of hue is probably due to age, 
but may he attributable to some other circumstance with which we are not acquainted. In the examples 
from Bogota, the oblique verditer-green mark on the upper mandible, forming so conspicuous a feature in 
Swainson’s figure, is very apparent; and this among other reasons has led me to consider the species to he 
a true one and to figure it as such. 
It is scarcely necessary to add, that this conclusion has been arrived at since my account of the R. Toeard 
was printed ; and that the insertion of Swainson’s name of R . ambiguus among the synonyms of that species 
is an error. 
The term “ Doubtful ,” I may observe, alludes to the species, and not to the “ Toucan ” as a generic 
appellation. 
The figures are of the natural size. 
