Fig. 62.
Fig. 63.
In the Toucans Ramphastidæ the bill is half a foot long, hollow within, thin, and nearly transparent; and the mandibles are so disposed as to combine, with their great bulk, strength and lightness, and assisting by their digestive power to assimilate both animal and vegetable food ([Fig. 62]). In the Pelicanidæ, as in the Common Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo, the bill is long, straight, and compound; the upper mandible curved towards the point, the lower compressed; the base inserted in a small membrane which extends under the throat. In the back part of the head is an additional bone ([Fig. 63], a), attached in such a manner to the occiput as to admit of great expansion, which permits of its swallowing plaice and other flat fish of considerable size. The Crane, Grus cinerea ([Fig. 64]), has the bill rather longer than the head, strong, straight, compressed, and pointed at the extremity; the sides of the mandible deeply channelled with nostrils, and closed backwards by a thin membrane.
Fig. 64.
In the Goose, genus Anser ([Fig. 65]), we find the bill short, not longer than the head, conical, covered at the base with a cerous skin, with under mandible smaller than the upper. In the Sparrows, Passerina ([Fig. 66]), the bill is strong and conical, the upper mandible slightly curved, the lower compressed and smaller than the upper; nostrils lateral, basal, round, and partly concealed by the short feathers at the base of the mandibles. In the Goatsuckers, Caprimulgus ([Fig. 67]), the bill is remarkably small and weak, the sides inflexed and sometimes gaping.
Fig. 65.