RAMPHASTOS ERYTHRORHYNCHUS.
Red-billed Toucan.

Sprecrric CHARACTER.

Ramph. rostro rubro, vitta fascidque basali flavis, hac postice lined anticé fascia nigris cinctd ;
tomiis nigris: niger ; gugulo pectoreque albis lutescenti tinctis ; torque pectoral angusta

caudeeque tectricibus infervoribus coccineis, supertoribus saturate flavis.

Beak red at the sides, with a broad line of yellow continued throughout its entire length, and
a basal belt of the same colour, bounded posteriorly by a narrow line of black and
anteriorly by a broader one of the same colour; a black line runs along the edges of both
mandibles; naked skin round the eye; the legs and the feet blueish lead colour ; general
plumage black ; the throat and chest white, with a tinge of greenish straw yellow, bounded
by a narrow pectoral band of scarlet, the under tail-coverts being of the same colour, while
the upper ones are deep yellow.

Total length, 23 inches ; ill, 6+; wings, 8%; taal, 62; tarsz, 2.

Red-beaked Toucan. Edw., t. 238.

Ramphastos erythrorhynchus. Auct.

Le Toucan. Levaill., Ois. de Parad., vol. 2. t. 3.

Le Toucan @ collier jaune? Levaill., Ois. de Parad., vol. 2 t. 4.

Toucan a gorge blanche de Cayenne, appellé Tocan. Buff, Pl. Enl., n. 262.
Ramphastos Levaillanti? Wagler, Syst. Avium.

 

Tue present species, as its name implies, is distinguished by the brilliant colouring of its beak, which loses its
original brightness immediately after death, so that the specimens exhibited in our museums might often be
mistaken, upon a superficial glance, for other species. In one respect it is subject to slight variety in its
colouring, as we do not find in all specimens the delicate straw-coloured tinge on the white breast, which is
= in all probability the index of a recent change of plumage, and which perhaps disappears after a short
ee exposure to the action of light and heat.
; Richly ornamented with well contrasted hues of great brilliancy, this elegant species inhabits the deep
forests which border: the Amazon, and the wooded districts of Cayenne and Guiana, being spread in
considerable abundance over a wide extent of country. In its general habits and manners it resembles the
rest of its congeners, leaping lightly from branch to branch among the topmost foliage of the highest trees,

where it passes its existence.