SELENIDERA LANGSDORFFI.

Langsdorff’s Toucanet.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Mas.—Sed/. rostro nigrescente prope basin in conereo-flacum transeunte, serraturis pallidis

Male.—Head, neck, throat and breast black; ear-coverts orange, crossing obliquely a tuft of
popow ete ; at the nape a crescent of bright yellow ; upper surface and wings greenish
olive ; primaries dark brown, margined externally with olive; flanks rich orange ; lower
part of the abdomen mingled olive and yellow ; thighs dark chestnut; under nicer
crimson ; tail dark greenish olive, the six middle tail-feathers upped with chestnut ; orbits
yellowish green ; irides blackish brown ; bill black, becoming paler on the serratures,
and passing into greenish horn-colour at the base ; legs and feet green.

Total length, 13 inches ; be//, 2¢; wing, 5; tail, 5; tarsi, 14.
Female —Head and back of the neck deep chestnut-red ; throat and breast pale chestnut-red ;
ear-coverts olive-yellow ; remainder of the plumage similar to that of the male, but the

nuchal collar and the hue of the other parts much less brilliant.

Pteroglossus Langsdorffii, Wagl\. Syst. Av., Pteroglossus, sp. 12.—Gould in Proe. of Zool.
Soc., Part II. p. 157 —Gould, Mon. of Ramph., pl. 28.—Ib. Sturm’s Edit., pl. —
Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 404, Pteroglossus, sp. 23.

Selenidera langsdorffi, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 95, Selenidera, sp. 5.

 

Tue only example of the present bird that had come under my notice, when the first edition of this work was
published, was the original specimen in the Munich Collection, from which the late Dr. Wagler took his
description for the Monograph of the group contained in his valuable “Systema Avium:” since then,
examples of both sexes have been received by me from the banks of the Amazon, whence its range
would seem to extend to the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes, as we find it mentioned in ‘ Froriep’s
Notices,” dated from ‘‘Pampayaco am Huallago” in eastern Peru, and I have myself received examples
from that country.

Some of my specimens were shot at Ega on the Upper Amazon, where it doubtless replaces the S.
maculirostris of eastern Brazil, from which it may be readily recognized by its more
the colouring of their plumage the two birds are

robust form, and by

the more uniform and sombre colouring of its bill. In
very similar; the orange spot on the sides, however, is always of a deeper ane richer hue in - ae
species. It is by no means a common bird, there being few collections in which examples are to be found.
Froriep gives the following account of the habits of the species :— ee
‘ Always observed in couples fluttering from branch to branch, and never flying ae i ae a g
frightened by the huntsman, which is probably due to t ts voice resembles the
of a Crow, and when uttered, the body is placed upright, vat the head bent b ok 8
the bill directed upwards ; it is only in this position that its cry 1s emitted Os oo swa ; cd.

P / ‘ker ing into the nests of the
state of nature it searches for its food after the manner of the Woodpecker, bori iB oe
Termite Ants with which the branches of the forest trees are covered. In captivity 1f 1s om1 S,
rpillar of the larger ants,

he shortness of its wings.
yack on the shoulders and

i and becomes very tame In a
may be easily kept upon insects, especially the cate

few days.”
: ; : ze.
The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural si

  
 
  
  
   
     

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