Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-11-05
AL ABOUT ToUcANs.
Tnev Arc SoCiahle birds, Resembling
Monkeys ia Their Habits.

No fow,S uf the air more admirably
typify in their own persons the effect
Of a forestine tropical truit-eatug life
than the gorgeous toucans Their big
bill enables them to reach out from
affair at fruits as they sit at their ease
on the trees that bear them, and To
toss them off at gulp in a large and
airy manner that is very character
istic of all the whole-Swallowing fruit
eaters They are gregarious and SO
ciahle birds, to a great extent or
ganized into a fixed community; for
they make common cause against
enemies. such as owls and falcons,
whom they surround and mob, with
one accord, after the fashion of all
dominant races, rs rocks do In Eng
land, Having thus little need for pro-
lection, they are noisy aud clamerous
in their native woods, resembling in
all these respects Che other gregariOus
fruit eaters, like parrots aud monkeys,
In short they display for us la fill per-
lection the free democratic, fearless,
open and gossipy life naturally engen-
dered in tropical surroundings among
powerful and social frugiyerous spe-
cies
But it is more especially the gorge
Gus culorg % II thr ~ us which
renders tbrm most rypaai in many
WAYS of the habits and muuuor, of the
larger fruit-eatiug bird. Flower
hunting and fruit-cating creatures,
such rs butterflies, hummiug-Mrds
eocEaoos and lories, almost always
develop in the long run marked MS
thetc taste for pure and brilliant e0l-
ors, which reacts at last through sexual
selection ON the their own appearance.
Accustomed 80 seek their food among
bright tropical blossoms or gaudy
Southern forest trees like mangoos and
star-applcs, the feathereI aesthetics
acquire hereditary l0ye for color
which influences them m the end in
the choice of their own brilliant mates,
and so secure, the perpeluation of the
most beautiful and most gorgeous of
the kind by unconscious Selections.
And IN this respect the CgrhiH BIgJ-
zine SAYS th.,t the toucans are absolute
ly unsurpassed In the whole range OF
nature; thcir large and riehly-co,1rea
bills, their delicate breast pmmage,
and bodies generally, present variety
of melting tiuts aud coutrusiod bucs
nowhere else to be found IN equally
close display on any other animal
People who have only seen stuffed
toucaus i'm a museum, however can
have no proper idea of the astonishing
magui6ceucc and beauty Of their rain
bow coloriug in Il state OF nature.
For the most delicate and most irTi-
descent of an their hues are those Of
the biz bcak and the soft naked parts
of the face and body. llore, blue and
green, crimson, orange, aud yellow
pass quickly into one another by dainty
gradations. Unhappily ,ne tiut5 of
the soft parts are so very eyancscent
thai they disappear altogether within a
few hours afterdeath,aud without them
to harmonize the general effect Of the
whole, the gaudy coloring Of the per-
manent plum, &c is apt to strike one,
in a museum as positively garisa 10
its crude reds and yellows a living
toucan, on the contrary, though al
most barbaric in It's magnilicence, can
never be accused OF vulgar bad taste;
II is like ST. Marks at Venice or ,be
Moorish decorations of the Alhambra
at Granada, polychromaiic 10 the last
degree yet always beautifully har-
mOuiOus.