INTRODUCTION.

a delicate white.

-acaris. offer no sexual difference in the colour
The true Toucans, unlike many of the Aragaris, offe

: in all their proporti
f the plumage; but the females are rather less than the males in al proportions,
0 Cavs

I h s

i rally g are not fully developed for a considerable
bills, however, as might naturally be expected, ar y Pp

period.

oO stra 5 a a ? ’

leaping from branch to branch with the most elegant agility.
OC

In a state of repose, they turn their heads over their shoulders, the bill being completely
hidden among the plumage of the upper parts and greater wing-coverts, and the tail raised

vertically over the back, in which state the bird resembles a ball of feathers.

The habits of these birds in confinement, as observed on two of the species, have been
admirably delineated in two papers published a few years since in the “ Zoological Journal,

by Mr. Broderip and Mr. Vigors. The details given by the latter gentleman are particularly

valuable: they were derived from the observation of an individual of the Ariel Toucan, kept

by him for several years, and are almost universally known on account of the numerous reprints

of them which have been induced by the graceful manner in which they are recorded, no less

than by the interest of the facts themselves,

With these few preliminary observations I dismiss the general subject, and proceed to offer
some remarks on the distribution of the species which have fallen under my notice.

I. The Toucans are distinguished among the Ramphastidee by the very disproportionate
size of their bills

s, and by the comparative shortness and

square termination of the tail. The
general colour of their feathering is bl

ack; but the throat and the upper and under tail-coverts

assume, in all the species yet known, a colouring different from th
tail-coverts appears to be iny

either crimson, white, or yellow

at of the ground. The colour
ariably crimson ; that of i
» according to the sey
terminated behind ]

of the under j :
1e€ upper tail-coverts is
eral species. The throat is either white or

yellow; and is i
\ ; and is »y a crimson band, which

Is IN some species very narrow,