RAMPHASTOS TOCO, Gmei.

Toco Toucan.

Specretc CHARACTER.

Ramph. rostro magno, aurantiaco ; fascia basal maculaque ovalt utrinque ad apicem mandibule

supervoris negris ; tectricibus caude superioribus albis.

General plumage black; throat and cheeks white, gradually passing into brimstone-yellow on
the breast, the lower feathers of which are narrowly fringed with blood-red ; upper tail-
coverts white; under tail-coverts blood-red; bill rich orange, with a series of obscure
transverse marks of a deeper hue on the sides; a large oval spot of black on each side of
the tip of the upper, and atransverse band of the same hue at the base of both mandibles ;
irides pale green next the pupil, to which succeeds a narrow ring of yellow, bounded
externally by a still narrower one of olive; orbits naked, prominent, much corrugated,
and of two colours; the part next the eye being fine cobalt-blue, forming a ring nearly a
quarter of an inch in breadth, and the remainder very rich orange ; legs and feet greenish
blue ; claws black.

Total length, 24 inches ; bell, 82; wing, 10; tael, 7; tarse, 2.

Ramphastos Toco, Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 356.—Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 135.

—Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nde Edit. tom. i. p. lxxvi—Wagl. Syst. Av., Ramphastos, sp. 1.

—Gould’s Mon. of Ramph., pl. 6.—Ib. Sturm’s Edit.. pl. © .—Gray and Mitch. Gen. of
Birds, vol. ii. p. 403, Ramphastos, sp. 7.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 93, Ramphastos,
sp. 10.

Toucan, seu Pica Bresselica, Gesn. Av., p. 726.

Le Toucan de Cayenne, appellé Toco, Buff. PI. Enl. 82.

Le Toco, Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois., tom. vii. p. 117. pl. 6.—Le Vaill. Ois. de Parad., tom. ii.
Paiiapla2:

Le Toucan proprement dit, Azara, Voy. dans LAmér. Mérid., tom. i. p. 141. No. L.

The Toco, Lath. Gen. Syn., tom. 1. p. 325. pl. 9.

Toco Toucan, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. vii. p. 361. pl. 46.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. 11. p. 281.
pl, xxix,

Ramphastos Indicus, Mill. Cim. Bhiys jpleong |

—_— niveus, Less. Compl. Buff., p. 184?

= NUP TUT OBITS; OW AlDS-

 

 

A.ruouex other members of the family equal the present species in the size of the body and the relative
proportions of the wings and tail, none of them have so large or so gaily-coloured a bill; in this respect it
far exceeds all other known species, and is rendered not only one of the most striking and singular mem-
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bers of the group to which it belongs, but one of the most owtré birds yet discovered. Yet, when we view
the bird in a state of nature or in our menageries, we see this organ carried with the greatest ease, the
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lightness of its structure enabling the bird to feed, and to plume its body feathers with as much facility as
other birds do with their shorter and apparently more manageable bills. Several examples lived for some
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years in the fine Menagerie of the late Earl of Derby, and latterly the cages in the Gardens of the Zoological
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Society in the Regent’s Park have been graced and enlivened by the presence of the Ramphastos Toco. But