the whole of the extensive forests bordering the mighty Amazon, from its source amidst the lofty Andes 
to the sea, is inhabited by this noble bird; I have also seen numerous specimens from Venezuela, and one 
from Santa Fe de Bogota. Some slight difference of size occurs in examples from these distant localities, 
the Venezuelan specimens being smaller and having shorter bills than the Amazonian, while those from 
Peru and Bogota are rather larger than either of the others: these variations are, however, too slight 
for the birds to be considered otherwise than as races of one and the same species. 
In the perfect or newly moulted plumage, the breast of both sexes is washed with yellow, which colour 
appears to fade under the influence of a tropical sun, leaving the breast, until the next moult, of a pure 
white. In some specimens a narrow thread-like line of scarlet separates the black colour of the upper 
mandible from the yellow culmenal ridge ; and a slight tinge of red is sometimes observable near the base 
of the dark portion of the upper mandible of the Peruvian birds. In its affinities this species is more nearly 
allied to R. erythror/ynchus than to any other, but its rich orange-coloured upper tail-coverts will at all times 
enable the ornithologist to distinguish it. I mention this because the red colouring of the bill in R. ery- 
throrhynchus sometimes gives place to black, a change induced either by a particular state of the bird 
(perhaps from being out of health), or from decomposition of the fine colour after death. 
Note.— Le Grand Toucan a gorge orange of Levaillant is added as a synonym of this species on the 
authority of a passage in Sturm’s Edition of this work, in which it is stated, that the late Mr. John Natterer 
had discovered that Levaillant has figured many made-up birds ; and that he had recently found the 
originals of two of his figures in the Royal Museum at Leyden ; one of which, the subject of his fifth plate, 
Le Grand Toucan a gorge orange, is certainly nothing more than a Ramphastos Cuvieri with the orange- 
coloured forepart of the neck, and the red of a Ramphastos Ariel added. 
The accompanying Plate represents a fully adult Amazonian specimen of the natural size. 
