Holland. With the exception of its long curled crest of deep sulphur yellow, the plumage is white, the inner barbs of the quill-feathers and the under tail-coverts having a tinge of yellow. "These Cockatoos are met

with in large flocks on the banks of several rivers of New South Wales, but are shy, and not easily approached. They make their nests in the rotten limbs of trees, of nothing more than the vegetable mould formed by the decayed parts of the bough; and lay no more than two eggs at a time, which are white, and without spots. The situation of these nests is readily discovered by the conspicuous heaps that lie upon the ground beneath some adjoining tree, from which the old birds cut a quantity of small branches when their young are nearly fledged, strip off their bark, and dividing it into shreds, deposit it in heaps upon the ground. Their breeding places appear to be local, and the flesh of the young is said to be good eating."

Of the genus Calyptorhynchus the species of which are said to feed much on roots, the BANKSIAN COCKATOO (C. Banks) may be noticed as an example. General colour black, the head and wing-coverts being dotted with reddish brown or buff; the outer tail-feathers scarlet in the middle, barred and tipped with black; the crest consisting of short broad feathers, and but slightly under the control of the will. Length about two feet. Here our survey of this singular family may be closed.

Another as remarkable and as interesting claims attention. It comprises a group of birds peculiar to South America, distinguished as much by the beauty of their colours as by the magnitude and form of the beak. The family alluded to is that of the Toucans, (Ramphastidæ.)

If the reader refers back to the Hornbills, (Buceros,) with which the sketch of the Conirostral tribe of the order Insessores was concluded, he will there find to what an extent this organ, the beak, may be developed; he will here meet with it again bearing nearly as disproportionate a size to the body of the birds in the group at present before him. Between the Hornbills and Toucans there is, in fact, a certain degree of affinity; though they differ

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widely in many essential points. To say nothing of the zygodactylous feet of the Toucans, the tongue is composed of a long, firm, narrow cartilage, fringed along each side with a continued barb of fine slender processes, directed forwards, and becoming longer towards the tip; this long feathered tongue is exchanged in the Hornbill for a short thick tongue at the very back of the throat. The beak

of the Toucans is destitute of any protuberant excrescences; it is deep, long, gently arched, and irregularly dentated along its margins. The texture is very light, the external surface consisting of a semitransparent plate of horn, as thin almost as paper; the internal structure being cellular. In many species the bill is as long as the body. The wings are rounded, and ill formed for rapid flight. The trees are essentially the abiding place of the Toucans; among the branches they display great activity, springing with vigorous leaps from bough to bough, at the very summit of the loftiest trees. D'Azara states that they are to a certain extent omnivorous, living a great part of the year on fruits, but during the breeding season attacking the smaller birds in their nests, and devouring their eggs or their young. Even the eggs and young of the maccaws and other large birds often fall victims to their carnivorous propensities. The breeding season, with the consequent facilities of procuring this kind of diet being passed, they are content with fruits. Their flight is low, heavy, and horizontal; while on the wing, the point of the beak is raised and directed forwards, so as to form as little an impediment as possible.

The tongue, from its structure and inflexibility, cannot, it is evident, be used to turn the food, or guide it into the

gullet; hence it is that on seizing any morsel, they throw it with a jerk into their widely distended throat, and swallow it. They are usually seen in groups of ten or twelve together, hopping among the branches of the tallest trees with great agility, and ever in motion. They build in the hollows of trees, and lay but two eggs at a time. Dr. Such says he has seen them frequently engaged in quarrels with the monkeys, which were doubtless anxious

to have the privilege of poaching to themselves. A wild fruit called the toucan-berry is a part of their diet. In the first volume of the Zoological Journal, p. 484, is an account of the manners of a Toucan recently living in this country. "Besides occasionally a small bird, bread, eggs, and vegetables constituted his diet; to animal food he always gave a decided preference." When settling to roost, the writer notices that the tail-feathers were retroverted upon the back, and the beak plunged amid the soft plumage of the back, the head being turned over the right shoulder; in this position the bird resembles an oval ball of feathers.

The Toucans are divided into two genera, the true Toucans (Ramphastos) and the Araçaris (Pteroglossus).

The Toucans have the tail square, and the beak smooth and ample; their ground colour is generally black; the throat, chest, and tail-coverts being of a rich or lively hue. Among the most beautiful is the Ramphastos dicolorus. The plumage is black, the throat being golden yellow, and a broad band on the chest, together with the upper and under tail-coverts, red. Another fine species, the R. culminatus, has the throat pure white. The species are too numerous to be individually given in detail.

The Araçaris have the beak more contracted in its dimensions than the Toucans, and more solid, the edges are also more deeply serrated; the tail is longer and graduated. The predominant colour of the body is olive green. Out of the many beautiful examples which this section contains one only will be mentioned, which is recently made known to science. The CURL-CRESTED ARAÇARI. (Pteroglossus ulocomus.) This splendid bird is a native of the forests of Brazil, and appears to be of extreme rarity. The head is covered with a crest of curled metallike feathers, of a glossy jet black, consisting of flat expanded shafts, without barbs. The feathers of the cheeks are also expanded at their tips in a similar manner; their colour is white, except at the tips, which are black. The top of the back and upper tail-coverts are deep red; the chest is yellow, with slight bars of red at irregular

intervals. The flanks are yellow, with broad stains of red. The middle of the back, wings, and tail are olive

green, the quill-feathers being brown. The bill is stained with longitudinal ribands of yellow, red, and dull blue, blending at their edges. Length eighteen inches.

The zygodactylous birds may be concluded with a small group which leads to the next order, namely, the Gallinaceous, having features which ally it to a family termed Curassows, of which we shall speak hereafter.