RAMPHASTOS CUVIERI, Wagi.

Cuvier’s Toucan.

Sprcrric CHARACTER.

Ramph. rostro tumido ad basin, brunneo-nigrescente, culmine luteo; genis, gutture, pectoreque

albis lutescente-tinctis ; tectricibus caude superioribus aurantiaco-flavis.

Male.—Crown of the head, back, wings, abdomen and tail black; throat white ; breast pale
yellow, bounded below by a crescent of fine deep scarlet; upper tail-coverts pale sulphur-

yellow at the base, passing into rich orange ; under tail-coverts deep scarlet ; bill brownish

black on the sides ; culmen rich yellow, becoming pale horn-colour at the tip ; across the
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vase of the bill a broad band, which on the upper mandible is of a rich yellow hue, and
on the under bluish lilac, the two colours blending into each other at the edges of the
mandibles ; immediately at the base of the bill a strong line of black ; orbits bluish green,
with a ring of bluish lilac around the eye; naked skin of the throat bluish green; above
the orbits at the base of the upper mandible a small patch of white feathers; feet blue,
with a lilac tinge on their under surface ;_ nails black.

‘Total length, 23 inches; bzd/, 6+ ; wing, 9: ; tal, 62; tarsz, 2.

Female.—Precisely similar in colour, but smaller in all her admeasurements, especially in the

length of the bill.

Note—The colouring of the soft parts differs in brilliancy at different seasons, according to the

age and vigour of the bird.

Ramphastos Cuviert, Wagl. Syst. Av. Ramphastos, sp. 5.—Less. Traité d’Orn., p- 171, Ram-
phastos, sp. 5.—Gould, Mon. of Ramph., pl. 2.—Ib. Sturm’s Edit., pl—Gray and
Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. 11. p. 403, Ramphastos, sp. 2.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p- 92,
Ramphastos, sp. 3.

Le Grand Toucan a gorge orange, Levaill. Hist. Nat. des Ois. de Parad., tom. ii. Pp 1S: ple
(See note below.)

Ramphastos Forsterorum, Wag\. Syst. Av. Ramphastos, sp. 9.- —Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds,

Ramphastos, sp. 3.

 

Wuen I published the first edition of this work, now nearly twenty years ago, a single specimen only of this
fine Toucan had come under my notice, although I had personally examined most of the public museums
and private collections in Europe; during the interval which has elapsed, much information has been obtained
respecting the localities the bird inhabits, and the colouring of its soft parts, both of which were at that time
comparatively unknown: I have had ample opportunities too of examining the numerous examples trans-
mitted to England from several districts of the Lower Amazon by Messrs. Wallace and Bates, and to the
Jardin des Plantes of Paris from Peru, by the celebrated traveller M. Alcide D’Orbigny. From the cir-
cumstance of so many examples being sent from the above-mentioned localities, I am induced to infer that