To this passage is appended a very abusive note, in which Ralph, whose name is stated to have been inserted after the first editions of the poem, is denounced as the author of a swearing piece called "Sawney," which, it appears, was an attack upon Pope and his two friends Swift and Gay. This low writer,' it is added, ‘attended his own works with panegyrics in the journals, and once in particular praised himself highly above Mr. Addison, in wretched remarks upon that author's account of English poets, printed in a London journal, September, 1728. He was wholly illiterate, and knew no language, not even French. Being advised to read the rules of dramatic poetry before he began a play, he smiled and replied, Shakspere writ without rules.' He ended at last in the common sink of all such writers, a political newspaper, to which he was recommended by his friend Arnall [manager of the British Journal'], and received a small pittance for pay.' In reply to this, his admirer in the Biographia Dramatica' says, 'It is very certain that he was master of the French and Latin languages, and not altogether ignorant of the Italian ; and was in truth a very ingenious prose writer, although he did not succeed as a poet.' His dramatic writings are- The Fashionable Lady, or Harlequin's Opera,' produced at the theatre in Goodman's Fields, in 1730, with some success, in the rage for such entertainments which had been recently excited by the 'Beggar's Opera;'The Fall of the Earl of Essex, a tragedy (altered from the 'Unhappy Favourite' of John Bankes), brought out at the same house in 1731; the Lawyer's Feast,' a farce, performed at Drury Lane in 1744; and the Astrologer,' a comedy, once acted,' says the titlepage, at Drury Lane,' also in 1744. The Astrologer' was only an alteration of an old play, called Albumazar,' written by a Mr. Tomkis, of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1615. Ralph, in his advertisement,' says the 'Biographia Dramatica, complains that ten years elapsed before it could obtain the favour of a representation; that he was not unknown to the great, nor destitute of private friends; and having devoted the most serious of his studies to the service of the public, he had some reason to expect the public favour; yet that the receipts of the house upon the first night were but twenty-one pounds; and when the manager risked a second, to give the author a chance for a benefit, he was obliged to shut up his doors for want of an audience.' Both the play and Ralph's dramatic reputation would thus appear to have been very bad. Another of his latter publications, which is described as a very excellent and very entertaining performance,' a tract, entitled The Case of Authors,' is stated to have also had 'some relation to the stage; it was probably an argument for the protection of dramatic copyrights; though his own do not seem to have been in much danger of infringement. the southern department, which the prince had engaged to RAM. [SHEEP.] RAMA. [VISHNU.] Most of Ralph's publications however were political pamphlets on the topics of the day; and he is also supposed to have continued to be an active contributor to the public journals to the end of his life. He atRAMADHA'N, the ninth month in the Arabian calentached himself latterly to the faction of the Prince dar, and a sort of Lent observed by the Mohammedans, in of Wales, and frequent mention of him may be found in obedience to the express command of the Koran. During Bubb Dodington's Diary.' Horace Walpole, in his 'Me- this month every good Moslem is bound to fast from the moirs of the Last Ten Years of George II.,' writes, under first appearance of day-break until sunset. He must abstain date of 2nd of June, 1753:- A new anti-ministerial paper from eating, drinking, smoking, smelling perfumes, and all appeared, called "The Protester," supported at the expense other unnecessary indulgences or pleasures of a worldly naof the duke of Bedford and Beckford [the alderman], and ture; even from intentionally swallowing his spittle. He written by Ralph, a dull author, originally a poet, and sais allowed to bathe himself, but it is on condition that he tirized in the Dunciad;' retained, after his pen had been is not to plunge his head under water, lest some drops rejected by Sir Robert Walpole, by Dodington and Waller; should enter his mouth or ears. Some even are so scrupubut much fitter to range the obscure ideas of the latter lous that they will not open their mouths to speak, for fear than to dress up the wit of the former: from them he de- of breathing the air too freely. To make amends for this volved to the Prince of Wales in his second opposition, and extreme rigour, Moslems generally feast all night till daylaboured long in a paper called The Remembrancer,' break, though the more rigid begin the fast again at mid which was more than once emboldened above the under- night. As the Ramadhan happens at different seasons of taker's pitch, by Lord Egremont and others. Ralph's own the year, the fast is very severe when it falls in summer; turn seemed to be endeavouring to raise mobs by specula- the abstinence from drinking being most painfully felt. tive ideas of government; from whence his judgment at Persons who are sick, or on a journey, and soldiers in time least may be calculated. But he had the good fortune to be of war, are not obliged to observe the fast during this month, bought off from his last journal, the Protester,' for the but then they should fast an equal number of days at a fuonly paper that he did not write in it.' Other accounts ture time. Fasting is also dispensed with in the case of make him to have been taken off' by a pension towards the nurses and pregnant women. The prophet even disapproved end of Sir Robert Walpole's time, in consequence of having of any persons keeping the fast of Ramadhan, if not perthen made himself so formidable to the ministry. The death fectly able; and he desired no man to observe it so strictly as of Prince Frederick (in March, 1751) was an annihilating to injure his health or disqualify himself for necessary la blow for the moment to Ralph, as well as to his patron bour, which is frequently the case among the lower classes Dodington, who had promised to make him his secretary of people. The reason given by the Mohammedan theoloif he should live to have the seals of secretary of state forgians for the month of Ramadhan having been fixed upon for this purpose is, that the prophet received his first revelation in that month; others pretend that it was chosen by Mohammed from its being generally spent by the antient Arabs in revelry and mirth and excessive drinking. RAMAYANA. [SANSCRIT LITERATURE.] RAMAZZINI, BERNARDO, was born at Carpi, near Modena, in 1633. He studied medicine at Parma, and took his doctor's degree there in 1659. He practised successively at Carpi and at Modena; and when the university of the latter place was instituted, he was appointed professor of the theory of medicine by the duke Francis II. In 1700 he was invited to the second professorship of medicine at Padua, and in 1708 was raised to the principal chair there, though blind and so infirm that he earnestly desired to decline that honour. He died in 1714. were about 60,000 men on each side, but the French generals were no match for Marlborough: and the day ended in a complete victory on the part of the allies, who lost only 4000 men, while the loss of the French was 15,000. The immediate evacuation of Flanders by the French was the result of this battle. RAMIRO II., son of Ordoño II, succeeded to the throne of Asturias and Leon by the abdication of his elder brother Alfonso IV., surnamedel Monge' (the monk), who, in 930, renounced the vanities of the world, and retired into the monastery of Sahagun. Ramiro rendered himself illustrious by his wars with the Mohammedans, from whom he wrested many considerable districts and towns, thereby extending the limits of the small kingdom founded by Pelayo. [PELAYO.] Soon after his accession to the throne (932), Ramiro, profiting by the internal troubles which at that time agitated the Mohammedan empire, made a successful irruption into the states of Abd-er-rahman, the reigning khalif, destroying Madrid, Talavera, and other towns; and when Al-mudaffer, the khalif's uncle, arrived at the head of considerable forces to revenge the outrage, he defeated him with dreadful carnage on the banks of the Duero, not far from the town of Osma. In 938 Ramiro turned his victo Ramazzini was a frequent writer and a very warm controversialist both in medical and literary subjects. His first work was a series of letters in a controversy with Moneglia, a physician of Modena, in which both engaged with much more acrimony than medical judgment, but in which Ramazzini certainly supported the best view of the case, which respected the removal of the placenta after child-rious arms to another quarter; he invaded Aragon, or birth. The works by which Ramazzini is now best known are 'De morbis artificum diatriba,' Mutin., 1770, and De abusu china-chinæ diss. epist.' The former was translated into several languages, and among them into English in 1725. It contains a fair description of all the diseases to which each class of artificers is liable, as far as they were then known, the descriptions being very carefully drawn up both from the writings of his predecessors and from his own observations. The latter was intended to detract from the extravagant reputation which the Peruvian bark at that time enjoyed, and though it may now be evident that the author fell into the opposite extreme, and degraded that medicine far below its real merits, the work was probably in its day productive of much benefit. The whole of Ramazzini's writings were published collectively at Cologne, in 1689, at London in 1717, and at several other places at nearly the same time. They are still held in high repute by the Italian physicians, who seem to regard their author with as much reverence as they did, who in his life-time honoured him with the title of Hippocrates III. RAMBEH, the Malay name of a fruit described by Mr. Jack as being common in the peninsula of Malacca, but unknown at Bencoolen, while the Choopa, which is nearly allied to it, is abundant at the latter, but is not found at the former place. The fruit is that of a tree called Pierardia dulcis, of the natural family of Sapindaceae. Another species of the same genus is called P. sapida, from its also yielding an edible fruit. It is found in the district of Tippera, to the eastward of Calcutta, and also in China, where it is cultivated for its agreeable fruit, according to information cbtained by Dr. Roxburgh from Chinese gardeners. It is remarkable that it should there be called Lutqua, as it is called Lutco by the Hindus on the eastern frontier of Bengal. RAMBERVILLER. [VOSGES.] RAMBOOTAN, a fruit of the Malayan archipelago, belonging to the same genus (Nephelium, of the natural family of Sapindaceae) as the Chinese fruits Litchee and Longan. The fruit is about the size of a pigeon's egg, something like that of the Arbutus, but larger, and of a brighter red. It has a skinny red coat covered with soft spines, whence is derived its Malay name from rambut, hair. Within the covering is enclosed a small quantity of semi-transparent rich subacid pulp, which forms the edible part of the fruit, and covers a large kernel. Mr. Marsden describes the flavour of this fruit as rich and of a pleasant acid, but Mr. Crawford states that it is not much esteemed. It has been cultivated in this country in a rich light loam in hothouses. RAMBOUILLET. [SEINE ET OISE.] RAMILLIES, or RAMELIES, a small village, with about 600 inhabitants, in the province of South Brabant, 13 miles north of Namur and 26 south-east of Brussels, in the present kingdom of Belgium. A victory was obtained in its vicinity, on the 23rd of May, 1706, by the allied army under the Duke of Marlborough and the Dutch field-marshal Van Ouwerkerk, over the French and Bavarians commanded by Marshal Villeroi and the Elector of Bavaria. This battle is considered as the most complete and successful exemplification of the military talents of Marlborough. The numbers Thagher (as that province was then called by the Arabs), and laid siege to its capital, Saragossa, which he would have reduced if the governor had not hastened to pay him homage and acknowledge himself a feudatory of his crown; though these advantages seem to have been counterbalanced by the victory gained by the Mohammedans over his troops in 938, near a village called Sotuscobas. Ramiro was again victorious in a battle fought under the walls of Ramora, in which the Moslems, according to their own authorities, lost upwards of 40,000 men, and Abd-er-rahman himself was well nigh taken prisoner. [MOORS.] Ramiro, like most of his predecessors, had often to contend with internal enemies. Scarcely had he ascended the throne when his brother Alfonso, growing weary of monastic life, forsook his cell, and with a considerable force hastened to Leon to reclaim his throne. He was there invested by Ramiro, who compelled him to surrender, and again consigned him to his monastery, where he was soon after deprived of his eyes, a species of punishment much in use among the Visigoths of Spain. The dependent count of Castile, Ferran-Gonzalez, and one Diego Nuñez, a count also in the same province, next revolted against Ramiro, but he marched against them, seized their persons, and confined them to a dungeon; though he soon after pardoned them and even married his eldest son Ordoño to Urraca, daughter of Ferran. Ramiro died on the 5th of January, 950, after a glorious reign of nearly twenty years. Some time before his death he abdicated in favour of his son Ordoño, and, assuming the penitential garb, passed the remainder of his days in religious retirement. Belon, at the end of the twenty-eighth chapter of his third book De la Nature des Oyseaux vivants le long des rivières, ayants le pied plat, nommez en Latin Palmipedes aves' (A.D. 1555), gives a wood-cut of the bill of a Toucan, which, from the black patch at the end of it, was probably that of Ramphastos Toco. He describes the bill as belonging to a bird of the teares neufues, which possesses that organ half a foot long, large as a child's arm, pointed and black at the tip, white elsewhere, and notched some little on the edges, hollow within, and so finely delicate that it is transparent and thin as parchment. Its beauty, he observes, has caused it to be kept in the cabinets of the curious. He further says that he has not seen the bird, but that he suspects that it is de pied plat, and therefore he has placed it with the River Birds. In the 'Portraits d'Oyseaux' also, the cut of this bill is placed at the end of Le Second Ordre des Oyseaux au pied plat.' Above it appears the following description:— 'Bec d'un Oyseau aquatique apporté des terres neufues.' 'Ce bec est gros comme le bras d'un enfant, Noir le bout, et blanc au demeurant.' lida, which meet it at the other extremity of the tribe. The connection of Ramphastos with the Psittacidæ is, he observes, not so evident. [PSITTACIDE, vol. xix., p. 85.] The Grandirostres form the fifth family of the Grimpeurs, the third order in the system of M. Latreille, and embrace the genera Toucan and Aracari, which are placed between the Proglosses (Wryneck, Woodpecker, &c.) and the Galliformes (Musophaga, Touraco). In M. Lesson's 'Projet' the Ramphastide succeed the Picidæ, and are the last family of the first tribe of his Insessores or Grimpeurs (Heterodactyles). The birds themselves do not seem to have found their way to England a century after the date of Belon's works; for, in the Museum Tradescantianum, the standard collection of the time, and which, from the list of contributors, appears to have been the great receptacle for all curiosities, The Toucans appear as the fifteenth family of the Norwe read, under the division (No. 2) of Beaks or Heads,—mal Birds of M. de Blainville, and are placed between 'Aracari of Brazil, his beak four inches long, almost two Buceros and Picus. thick, like a Turke's sword' (A.D. 1656). But if the bird itself had not been brought forward, it is probable that Tradescant knew its nature, from the description above given. Petiver (tab. xliv., f. 13) gives a figure of the bird complete, and though it bears all the marks of the imperfect state of the arts at that time, as far as engravings of subjects of natural history are concerned, it is substantially correct, and the arrangement of the toes right. The description is, 'Toucan Surinamensis niger, ex albo, flavo, rubroque mixta,' taken from a Dutch painting, in Mr. Clark's collection: this does not exactly agree with any authors I have yet read.' Willughby (tab. xx.) gives a figure of a Toucan (Ramphastos Toco, probably) under the name of 'the Brazilian Pie of Aldrovandus, the Toucan of Marcgrave and others, the Xochitenacatl of the Mexicans: Nieremb.' The figure is incorrect about the feet, to which three anterior toes are given, though Willughby, who cites Thevetus, Faber, Dal Pozzo, Lerius, Oviedo, and John de Laet, was evidently aware of the true organization, viz. two toes before and two behind. Brisson placed the form in his thirteenth order, consisting of those birds which have four toes, two before and two behind. Linnæus arranged the Toucans (Ramphastos) at the head of the second division (pedibus scansoriis) of his second order, Pica. Latham also assigned to them the same situation. Lacepède places Ramphastos at the head of the second order (Bec dentelé) of his Grimpeurs, or climbers. Duméril arranged the form at the head of the Levirostres, or Cénoramphes, the second family of his third order, Grimpeurs. The Scansores form the first order in the method of Illiger, and Ramphastos and Pteroglossus appear at the head of the second family, Serrati. In Cuvier's system the Toucans are arranged in his third order, Grimpeurs, between the Anis [CROTOPHAGA] and the Parrots [PSITTACIDE]. The Zygodactyli are the first tribe of M. Vieillot's second order, Sylvicole, and the Toucans are placed in the fourth family, Ptéroglosses, between the Jacamars and Barbets. M. Temminck arranges the form in the first family of his fifth order, Zygodactyles. Mr. Swainson (Classification of Birds) states that the fourth family of the Scansores, or Climbing Birds, is represented by the Toucans, whose enormous bills give to these birds a most singular and uncouth appearance. He remarks that their feet are formed, like those of the parrots, more for grasping than climbing, and that they do not appear to possess the latter faculty; but as they always live among trees, and proceed by hopping from branch to branch, their grasping feet are peculiarly adapted to such habits. He adds that the intervals between the toucans and the parrots is not perhaps so great as between the latter and the woodpeckers; but that still it is sufficiently wide to make us believe that one if not two of the intervening types are wanting. The genera of the Ramphastide, according to Mr. Swainson, are Ramphastos, Pteroglossus, Aulacorhynchus,* and Scythrops. Mr. G. R. Gray (List of the Genera of Birds) makes the Ramphastide the first family of the Scansores, with the following genera: Rhamphastos, Linn. (Pica, Gesn., Tucana, Briss.). Selenidera, Gould (Ramphastos, Linn.; Pteroglossus Aulacoramphus (Ramphastos, Linn.; Pteroglossus, Sw.; Mr. Gould, in his beautiful monograph of the Ramphas tide, divides them into two great sections: 1. Caudâ breviore, quadratâ; rostro maximo. Nigri, gutture caudæque tegminibus discoloribus. RAMPHASTOS. (The Toucans.) Of these Mr. Gould records eleven species, arranged in four subdivisions, according to the distribution of their colouring. 2. Caudâ longiore, graduata; rostro majore. Viridescentes; capite, gastran, tegminibusque caudæ superioribus in plurimis discoloribus. PTEROGLOSSUS. (The Araçaris.) Of these Mr. Gould records twenty-two species, arranged in twelve subsections, also according to the distribution of their colouring. Mr. Vigors (Linn. Trans., vol. xiv.) opens his section on the Scansores with a remark on the deviation which had been observed in the Buceride (arranged by him among the Conirostres) from the more perfect formation of the foot, as preparing us for the still more considerable deviation that takes place in the same particular among the Scansorial Birds. Besides the approach which we have just noticed in the Buceride [HORNBILLS] to the imperfect form of the scansorial foot, we may perceive that the large and disproportionate bill of that family is carried on to the Ramphastidæ, the first family of the Scansores that meets our attention. There is seldom perhaps a surer guide to relations of affinity and analogy than common observation; and a trivial or provincial name often anticipates the more correct and scientific views of the naturalist. In seeking for the immediate point of junction between the two tribes now before us, we are in this manner directed at once to the object of our search; a scansorial genus, belonging to the family of Ramphastidæ, the Scythrops of Dr. Latham, being designated, as may be seen in the collection belonging to the Linnean Society, by the denomination of Psittaceous Hornbill. [SCYTHROPS.] The family of Ramphastidæ then, according to Mr. Vigors, consists of the genera Ramphastos, | Linn., and Pteroglossus, Ill., which fill up the some station in the New World that Buceros maintains in the Old. To these genera he adds Scythrops, as equally assimilated to both groups, and thus supplying their place in Australasia. Scythrops, in the opinion of Mr. Vigors, unites the Ram-fed also on eggs, nestlings, &c. phastida with the larger and more prominent billed Cucu Geographical Distribution, Habits, &c.-The Toucans and Araçaris appear to be restricted in their geographical range to tropical America, and there they live retired in the deep forests, mostly in small companies. Their flight is straight but laborious, and not graceful; while their movements, as they glide rather than hop from branch to branch, are elegant. Mr. Broderip gives the following account of the habits of a Toucan (Ramphastos erythrorhynchus) in captivity. Mr. Swainson, who had seen the Toucans in their native forests, had previously informed Mr. Broderip that he had frequently observed them perched on the tops of lofty trees, where they remained as if watching. This circumstance, joined to others connected with the remains of food found in the stomachs of such as were dissected, induced Mr. Swainson to suspect that these birds were partly carnivorous, feeding upon eggs and young birds, as well as fruits and berries; and that while perched upon these high trees, the Toucans were in fact busily employed in watching the departure of the parent-birds from their nests. Mr. Swainson could never catch the Toucans in the fact, nor did any thing appear in his dissections to determine with certainty on what they fed. Mr. Such informed Mr. Broderip that he had seen these birds in Brazil feed on the Toucan-berry, that he had frequently observed them engaged in quarrels with the monkeys, and that he was certain that the Toucans •Employed in botany. additional evidence of the sensibility of this organ. While taking his prey he never used his foot for the purpose of conveying it either to his bill or elsewhere. The bill was the sole vehicle and the organ actively employed; the foot merely confined the prey on the perch. 'But there is yet another of the peculiarities of this bird which cannot be passed over in silence. When he settles himself to roost, he sits a short time with his tail retroverted, so as to make an acute angle with the line of his back; he then turns his bill over his right shoulder, nestling it in the soft plumage of the back (on which last the under mandible rests), till the bill is so entirely covered that no trace of it is visible. When disturbed, he did not drop his tail, but almost immediately returned his bill to the comfortable nidus from which on being disturbed he had withdrawn it. He broke a short time ago some of his tail-feathers, and the proprietor informed me that before that accident the bird when at roost retroverted his tail so entirely that the upper surface of the tail-feathers lay over and came in contact with the plumage of the back; so that the bird had the appearance of a ball of feathers, to which indeed when I saw him he bore a very considerable resemblance. The proprietor informs me that he always roosts in the same way.' (Zool. Journ., vol. i.) In a subsequent volume (ii.) Mr. Vigors gives the following interesting account of a Toucan, Ramphastos Ariel (Vig.), which he kept in a state of domestication for many years: On the 23rd of November, 1824, the late lamented Mr. Vigors had spoken at the Zoological Club of a living Toucan, which was then exhibited in St. Martin's Lane. Mr.Vigors stated that the bird had been fed on a vegetable diet; but that the proprietor had told him that on the occasion of a young Canary bird having escaped and gone near to the Toucan, the latter appeared more than usually excited, that thereupon the barrier between them was removed, and that the Toucan instantly seized and devoured the Canary bird. On the next day Mr. Broderip went to the place where the Toucan was exhibited, and thus describes what he saw:After looking at the bird which was the object of my visit, and which was apparently in the highest state of health, I asked the proprietor to bring up a little bird, that I might see how the Toucan would be affected by its appearance. He soon returned, bringing with him a goldfinch, a last year's bird. The instant he introduced his hand with the goldfinch into the cage of the Toucan, the latter, which was on a perch, snatched it with his bill. The poor little bird had only time to utter a short weak cry; for within a second it was dead, killed by compression on the sternum and abdomen, and that so powerful that the bowels were protruded after a very few squeezes of the Toucan's bill. As | soon as the goldfinch was dead, the Toucan hopped with it, still in his bill, to another perch, and placing it with his bill. between his right foot and the perch, began to strip off the feathers with his bill. When he had plucked away most of them, he broke the bones of the wings and legs (still holding the little bird in the same position) with his bill, taking the limbs therein, and giving at the same time a strong lateral wrench. He continued this work with great dexterity till he had almost reduced the bird to a shapeless mass; and ever and anon he would take his prey from the perch in his bill, and hop from perch to perch, making at the same time a peculiar hollow clattering noise; at which times I observed that his bill and wings were affected with a vibratory or shivering motion, though the latter were not expanded. He would then return the bird to the perch with his bill, and set his foot on it. He first ate the viscera, and continued pulling off and swallowing piece after piece, till the head, neck, and part of the back and sternum, with their soft parts, were alone left: these, after a little more wrenching, while they were held on the perch, and mastication, as it were, while they were held in the bill, he at last swallowed, not even leaving the beak or legs of his prey. The last part gave him the most trouble; but it was clear that he felt great enjoyment; for whenever he raised his prey from the perch he appeared to exult, now.masticating the morsel with his toothed bill and applying his tongue to it, now attempting to gorge it, and now making the peculiar clattering noise accompanied by the shivering motion above mentioned. The whole operation from the time of seizing his prey to that of devouring the last morsel lasted about a quarter of an hour. He then cleaned his bill from the feathers by rubbing it against the perches and bars of his cage. While on this part of the subject it may be as well to mention another fact, which appears to me not unworthy of notice. I have more than once seen him return his food some time after he had taken it to his crop, and, after masticating the morsel for awhile in his bill, again swallow it; the whole operation, particularly the return of the food to the bill, bearing a strong resemblance to the analogous action in ruminating animals. The food on which I saw him so employed was a piece of beef, which had evidently been macerated some time in the crop. While masticating it, he made the same hollow clattering noise as he made over When in his cage, he is peculiarly gentle and tractable, the remains of the goldfinch. Previous to this operation he suffers himself to be played with, and feeds from the hand. had examined his feeding-trough, in which there was nothing Out of his cage, he is wild and timid. In general he is but bread, which I saw him take up and reject; and it ap- active and lively; and, contrary to what might be expected, peared to me that he was thus reduced from necessity to the from the apparent disproportion of the bill and the seemingly above mode of solacing his palate with animal food. His clumsy shape of the birds of this genus, as they are usually food consists of bread, boiled vegetables, eggs, and flesh, set up or represented in figures, his appearance is not only to which a little bird is now added about every second or graceful, but his movements, as he glides from perch to third day. He shows decided preference for animal food, perch, are light and sylph-like; so much so as to have sugpicking out all morsels of that description, and not re-gested to an intelligent friend who witnessed them the spesorting to the vegetable diet till all the former is exhausted. It is said that the nerves are very much expanded within the internal surface of the bill in these birds; and independently of the sensual enjoyment which the Toucan above mentioned appeared to derive from palating his prey, I have observed him frequently scratching his bill with his foot, which may be considered as furnishing With respect to the manners of my bird, I can add but little to the very accurate and interesting account of those of a species nearly allied to it, which has appeared in a preceding number of this journal.* I have not allowed it to be indulged in that disposition to animal food which so strikingly belongs to this family. I find in fact that it thrives suffi ciently well upon a vegetable diet; and I fear that if it should once be allowed any other, it would be difficult to restrain its inclination for it within moderate limits. Eggs are the only animal food with which it has been supplied since it came into my possession. Of these it is particularly fond, and they are generally mixed up in his ordinary food, which consists of bread, rice, potatoes, German paste, and similar substances. He delights in fruits of all kinds During the period when these were fresh, he fed almost exclusively on them; and even in the present winter months he exhibits great gratification in being offered pieces of apples, oranges, or preserved fruits of any description. These he generally holds for a short time at the extremity of his bill, touching them with apparent delight with his slender and feathered tongue; and then conveying them by a sudden upward jerk to his throat, where they are caught and instantly swallowed. His natural propensity to preying upon animals, although not indulged, is still strongly conspicuous. When another bird approaches his cage, or even a skin or preserved specimen is presented to him, he exhibits considerable excitement. He raises himself up, erects his feathers, and utters that "hollow clattering sound" noticed by Mr. Broderip, which seems to be the usual expression of delight in these birds; the irides of his eyes at the same time expand, and he seems ready to dart upon his prey, if the bars of his cage permitted his approach. On one occasion, when a small bird was placed by chance over his cage at night, he showed great restlessness, as if aware of the neighbourhood of the bird; and he would not be composed until the cause of his anxiety was discovered and removed. cific name which I have ventured to assign him. He keeps himself in beautiful plumage, his lighter colours being strikingly vivid, and the deep black of his upper body in particular being always bright and glossy. For this fine condition he seems to be much indebted to his fondness for bathing. Every day he immerses himself in cold water with apparent pleasure, even in this severe weather and • Mr. Broderip's account, above given. in no respect indeed does he appear to suffer by the tran- | movements the tail seemed to turn as if on a hinge that was sition from his own warm climate to our uncongenial atmo-operated upon by a spring. At the end of about two hours sphere. he began gradually to turn his bill over his right shoulder, and to nestle it among the feathers of his back, sometimes concealing it completely within the plumage, at other times having a slight portion of the culmen exposed. At the same time he drooped the feathers of his wings and those of the thigh-coverts, so as to encompass the legs and feet; and thus nearly assuming the appearance of an oval ball of feathers, he secured himself against all exposure to cold.' "Besides the "hollow clattering noise," as my friend Mr. Broderip so expressively terms the usual sounds of these birds, he utters at times a hoarse and somewhat discordant cry when he happens to be hungry, and to see his food about to be presented to him. On such occasions he stands erect, raising his head in the air, and half opening his bill as he emits this cry. These are the only sounds I have heard him utter; and in neither can I say that I have detected any similarity, or even approach, to the word Toucan, as has sometimes been asserted, and from whence the trivial name of the genus has been supposed to originate. Neither have I been able to verify another observation which has been advanced respecting these birds, that the bill is compressible between the fingers in the living bird. The bill, notwithstanding the lightness of its substance, is firm, and capable of grasping an object with much strength. The mode in which Mr. Broderip describes his Toucan as having broken the limbs of the bird which he was about to devour, by" a strong lateral wrench," sufficiently shows that the bill is not deficient in power. Indeed I generally observe that my bird takes what is offered him rather by the sides than by the point of his bill; and I suspect that much of the powers of that member are centred in this lateral motion. The serration of the edges also may be supposed to tend to these peculiar powers. The manner in which he composes himself to rest is represented in the accompanying plates. Since the cold weather has commenced, he has been brought into a room with a fire, and the unusual light seems to nave interfered with his general habits; he does not go o rest as early or as regularly as was his custom; and he sometimes even feeds at a late hour. During the warmer months however, when he was more free from interruption, his habits were singularly regular. As the dusk of the evening approached, he finished his last meal for the day; took a few turns, as if for exercise after his meal, round the perches of his cage; and then settled on the highest perch, disposing himself, almost at the moment he alighted on it, in the posture represented, his head drawn in between his shoulders, and his tail turned vertically over his back. 'In this posture he generally remained about two hours, in a state between sleeping and waking, his eyes for the most part closed, but opening on the slightest interruption. At such times he would allow himself to be handled, and would even take any favourite food that was offered him without altering his posture further than by a gentle turn of the head. He would also suffer his tail to be replaced by the hand in its natural downward posture, and would then immediately return it again to its vertical position. In these P. C., No. 1203. Toucan at roost; second stage. All are now agreed that in a state of nature the Ramphas tide are omnivorous. Mr. Swainson (Classification of Birds) says, 'The apparent disproportion of the bill is one of the innumerable instances of that beautiful adaptation of structure to use which the book of nature everywhere reveals. The food of these birds principally consists of the eggs and young of others, to discover which nature has given them the most exquisite powers of smell;' and he notices the size of the bill as ancillary to this development. Mr. Gould, who alludes to the papers of Mr. Broderip and of Mr. Vigors, states that in their choice of food the Ramphastidæ are perfectly omnivorous; and although their elastic bill and delicately feathered tongue would lead us to conclude that fruits constituted the greatest proportion of their diet, we have abundant testimony that they as readily devour flesh, fish, eggs, and small birds, to which, in all probability, are added the smaller kinds of reptiles, caterpillars, and the larvæ of insects in general. The incubation of most if not all of this family takes place in the holes of trees, a habit that was very early known. We find Willughby, after quoting Faber for proof that in the structure of their feet, &c., the toucans resemble the woodpeckers, to the genus whereof the toucan, as Faber in this place proves, doth undoubtedly belong,' continuing thus: for it not only hath a like situation of toes, but also in like manner hews holes in trees to build its nest, as Fryer Peter Alvaysa, and other Indians and Spaniards, who had long lived in America, told Faber for a certain truth; and Oviedus, in the forty-third chapter of his summary of the history of the West Indies, published in Italian, writes, adding that he thinks there is no bird secures her young ones better from the monkeys, which are very noisome to the young of most birds. For when she perceives the approach of those enemies, she so settles herself in her nest as to put her bill out at the hole, and gives the monkeys such a welcome there with that they presently pack away, and glad they escape so. From this quality of boring the VOL. XIX.-2 P |