ensive, as it has no need to wage war with any of the tribes of
animated nature; for its food is fruits and seeds, and those are in
superabundance throughout the whole year in the regions where the toucan
is found. It can hardly be for the defensive, as the toucan is preyed
upon by no bird in South America, and were it obliged to be at war, the
texture of the bill is ill adapted to give or receive blows, as you will
see in dissecting it. It cannot be for any particular protection to the
tongue, as the tongue is a perfect feather.

The flight of the toucan is by jerks; in the action of flying it seems
incommoded by this huge disproportioned feature, and the head seems as if
bowed down to the earth by it against its will; if the extraordinary form
and size of the bill expose the toucan to ridicule, its colours make it
amends. Were a specimen of each species of the toucan presented to you,
you would pronounce the bill of the bouradi the most rich and beautiful;
on the ridge of the upper mandible a broad stripe of most lovely yellow
extends from the head to the point; a stripe of the same breadth, though
somewhat deeper yellow, falls from it at right angles next the head down
to the edge of the mandible; then follows a black stripe, half as broad,
falling at right angles from the ridge, and running narrower along the
edge to within half an inch of the point. The rest of the mandible is a
deep bright red. The lower mandible has no yellow; its black and red are
distributed in the same manner as on the upper one, with this difference,
that there is black about an inch from the point. The stripe
corresponding to the deep yellow stripe on the upper mandible is sky
blue. It is worthy of remark that all these brilliant colours of the
bill are to be found in the plumage of the body, and the bare skin round
the eye.

All these colours, except the blue, are inherent in the horn; that part
which appears blue is in reality transparent white, and receives its
colour from a thin piece of blue skin inside. This superb bill fades in
death, and in three or four days' time has quite lost its original
colours.

Till within these few years no idea of the true colours of the bill could
be formed from the stuffed toucans brought to Europe. About eight years
ago, while eating a boiled toucan, the thought struck me that the colours
in the bill of a preserved specimen might be kept as bright as those in
life. A series of experiments pro