Toucans
We now come to a group of really extraordinary birds. They are found in the forests of Central and South America, and are chiefly remarkable for their beaks, which in the first place are so enormous that they look as if they had been intended for birds at least six times as big, and in the second place are most gaudily colored. It is not very easy to describe them, because there are a good many kinds of toucans, and each has its bill differently colored. In one the beak is partly orange and partly black, with a lilac base. In another it is light green, with the tip and edges of the most brilliant scarlet. In a third it is half scarlet and half bright yellow; while in a fourth it is creamy white with a broad streak of crimson running along the middle; and in a fifth is a most singular mixture of orange and blue and chocolate brown and white.
Owing to the great size of their bills these birds are most ungainly in appearance, and one cannot help wondering how they manage to hold up their heads. But in reality these huge beaks are not at all heavy, for instead of being made of solid horn, the whole of the interior is broken up into cells, the divisions between which are no thicker than paper—a structure which gives them not only great lightness but great strength.
Toucans live chiefly in the trees, and spend most of their time in the topmost branches, where they are fond of gathering together in large flocks. They are very noisy birds, for they not only utter hoarse cries and loud yells in chorus, but have a way of clattering their beaks together as well. Owing to this habit the natives of South America sometimes call them "preacher-birds."
When they go to sleep toucans double their tails over upon their backs, just as though they had hinges at the base, and bury their great beaks among the feathers of their shoulders. The consequence is that they do not look like toucans at all, or even like birds, and seem to be mere bundles of loose feathers.
Hornbills
These are more extraordinary still, some of them having beaks so enormous that they look as if they had been meant for birds twelve times instead of only six times as big as themselves. And the strangest thing of all is that upon the upper part is a great horny helmet, which in some cases is quite as large as the beak itself. In the rhinoceros-hornbill, indeed, the beak and helmet together are pretty nearly as big as the body.
Both beak and helmet, however, except in one species, are made just like the bills of the toucans, so that in spite of their enormous size they are not at all heavy. But why they should be so big is more than we can tell you.
Hornbills are found in many parts of both Africa and Asia, and most of them live in the trees. They nearly always hop from one branch to another until they reach the very topmost boughs, where they will sit for hours together, occasionally uttering a series of loud, roaring cries, which can be heard for a very long distance. And when they fly they keep opening and closing their beaks, and so making an odd clattering noise which generally puzzles travelers very much when they hear it for the first time.
There are two kinds of hornbills which live on the ground. One of these is found in South Africa, and the Kafirs have a curious idea about it, due to the fact that after death its body smells very nasty. They think that if one of these birds is killed and thrown into a river it will make the stream feel ill, and that a heavy fall of rain will take place in order that the carcass may be washed into the sea! So in times of drought they always try to kill a ground-hornbill and fling it into the nearest river.