112 
WANDERINGS IN 
SECOND 
JOURNEY, 
Preserves 
a bill of 
the Tou¬ 
can. 
Till within these few years, no idea of the true 
colours of the bill could be formed from the stuffed 
toucans brought to Europe. About eight years ago, 
while eating a boiled toucan, the thought struck me 
that the colours in the bill of a preserved specimen 
might be kept as bright as those in life. A series of 
experiments proved this beyond a doubt. If you 
take your penknife and cut away the roof of the 
upper mandible, you will find that the space betwixt 
it and the outer shell contains a large collection of 
veins, and small osseous fibres running in all di¬ 
rections through the whole extent of the bill. Clear 
away all these with your knife, and you will come 
to a substance more firm than skin, but of not so 
strong a texture as the horn itself; cut this away 
also, and behind it is- discovered a thin and tender 
membrane; yellow, where it has touched the yellow 
part of the horn; blue, where it has touched the red 
part, and black towards the edge and point; when 
dried, this thin and tender membrane becomes 
nearly black; as soon as it is cut away, nothing 
remains but the outer horn, red and yellow, and 
now become transparent; the under mandible must 
undergo the same operation. Great care must be 
taken, and the knife used very cautiously, when you 
are cutting through the different parts close to where 
the bill joins on to the head; if you cut away too 
much, the bill drops off; if you press too hard, the 
knife comes through the horn; if you leave too great 
a portion of the membrane, it appears through the 
horn, and by becoming black when dried, makes the 
