lossus Beauharnaisii_, or curl-crested
tucano, etc., extremely common, especially farther north, near the
borders of the Amazon.

I was sorry when my men killed this beautiful bird. I had watched it for
some time, with its inquisitive habits, hopping from branch to branch,
peeping its bill into cavities and examining everything that happened
below by bending its head attentively, now on one side then on the other.
It evidently took intelligent interest in our doings. My men had gone out
to do their cooking. The bird watched them with the greatest
attention--with jerky movements not unlike those of a magpie.

The tucanos have, I believe, been described as being stupid; but on the
contrary I think they are extremely clever--quite as clever as many
parrots or macaws. I observed how shrewd that particular bird was. It
would come quite close to us, and examine with really amazing attention
what we were doing as long as we were not taking any notice of it, but
the moment a man happened to touch a stone or try to point a rifle at it,
it would fly a long distance off, with shrill yelps, and would not return
until it was quite sure that we were not noticing its presence.

The uses of the enormous bill of the tucano have often been discussed by
ornithologists, many of whom believe that the bill is of no use to that
bird and Nature made in this case a mistake and has not yet had time to
rectify it. Scientists frequently allege that Nature makes mistakes,
because many of them have never really understood Nature. How could they?
They have never been near enough to Nature unspoiled. Many of them also
believe that tucano birds are great fishers, following the notion that
many water birds have red or yellow bills of large size. That, too, is
another great mistake, for the tucano is eminently a fruit and nut eater,
and of course a feeder on worms and insects contained in fruit.

The huge bill, attaining the length of six or seven inches, is toothed at
the sides in order to be able to saw the stems of fruit. The shape and
size of the bill, far from being a mistake of nature, are made so in
order to enable that bird to dig holes into the bark of trees and to
enable it to crush and chew the many curiously shaped fruits found in
certain parts of the Brazilian forest. Moreover, the bill is also a great
protection to the head in going through the dense foliage, where thorns
are innumerable and alive with dangerous insects of great size, whi