AULACORAMPHUS WAGLERI. 
Wag-ler’s Groove-bill, 
Specific Character. 
Aul. rostro nigro, ad basin lined aurantiaco-flava , circumdato, lateribus (nisi basin versus ) flavis 
superne in cceruleo-viridem transeuntibus infra lined nigra a tomio sejunctis. 
General plumage deep green, with a wash of blue on the tips of the secondaries ; primaries 
black, edged with green; tail deep green, passing into blue near the extremity and largely 
tipped with rich chestnut; the portion of the cheeks immediately behind the bill and the 
throat white, with a slight wash of blue where it meets the green of the neck and chest; 
under tail-coverts chestnut; base of the culmen, a large nearly triangular patch in the lower 
angle of the upper mandible, and a line along the denticulations black ; remainder of the 
upper mandible rich yellow, with a line of pale green along the lower edge of the yellow 
separating it from the black of the denticulations; under mandible entirely black, both 
mandibles bounded at the base by a somewhat broad raised band of orange-yellow ; 
irides orange; orbits deep rose-red ; legs and feet leaden-blue. 
Total length, 14 inches; bill, 3i; wing, 51; tail, 51; tarsi, If. 
Pteroglossus pavoninus, in Royal Mus. of Munich.—Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part III. 
p. 158.—lb. Mon. Ramph. pi. 30.—Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 404, Ptero¬ 
glossus, sp. 26. 
Pteroglossus Wagleri, Sturm’s Edit, of Gould’s Mon. of Ramph., pi. 
Aulacoramphus pavoninus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 95, Aulacoramphus , sp. 2. 
The Pteroglossus Sturmi being unique in the Imperial Museum of Vienna, and the Aulacoramphus Wagleri 
in the Royal Museum of Munich, I was under the necessity of visiting both those cities for the purpose 
of obtaining drawings for the present work ; the information I procured respecting these Toucans twenty 
years ago was but meagre, nor has our knowledge been increased in the interval. Considerable confusion 
exists as to the name of the present species: it lias generally been known as the Pteroglossus pavoninus of 
Wagler, but the Messrs. Sturm state that Wagler gave that name in mistake to an example of the bird pre¬ 
viously named prasinus by Dr. Lichtenstein, and add that two other species had also been confounded under 
the same appellation; they also remark that the name is singularly inappropriate, inasmuch as there is 
nothing in the appearance or colouring of the bird to remind us of a Peacock; and moreover state then- 
belief, that the name had in the first instance been applied to a made-up specimen which had had some 
feathers inserted, thus giving rise to a false impression; under these circumstances they have discarded 
the name altogether and proposed that of Wagleri, as a just compliment to their friend Dr. Wagler, who 
had done so much for the science of ornithology, and whose untimely death by the accidental discharge of 
a gun during a shooting excursion, deprived natural history of the service of one of her most talented and 
enthusiastic professors. 
The Aulacoramphus Wagleri is said to be a native of Mexico. It is very nearly allied to the Aulacoramphus 
prasinus, but may be distinguished from that species by its more attenuated bill, by the greater breadth and 
more orange hue of the raised band at its base, and by the large amount of black near the base of the upper 
mandible. 
The figure is of the size of life. 
