TOUCAN, the Brazilian name of a bird,1 long since adopted into nearly all European languages, and apparently first given currency in England (though not then used as an English word) in 1668 2 by W. Charleton (Onomasticon, p. 115); but the bird, with its enormous beak and feather-like tongue, was described by Oviedo in his Sumario de la historia natural de las Indias, first published at Toledo in 1527 (ch. 42)," and, to quote the translation of part of the passage in F. Willughby's Ornithology (p. 1 29) , " there is no bird secures her young ones better from the Monkeys, which are very noisom to the young of most Birds. For when she perceives the approach of those Enemies, she so settles her self in her Nest as to put her Bill out at the hole, and gives the Monkeys such a welcome therewith, that they presently pack away, and glad they scape so." Indeed, so remarkable a bird must have attracted the notice of the earliest European invaders of America, the more so since its gaudy plumage was used by the natives in the decoration of their persons and weapons. In 1555 P. Belon (Hist. nat. oyseaux, p. 184) gave a characteristic figure of its beak, and in 1558 Thevet (Singularitez de la France antarctique, pp.
\n88-90) a long description, together with a woodcut (in some respects inaccurate, but quite unmistakable) of the whole bird, under the name of " Toucan," which he was the first to publish. In 1560 C. Gesner (Icones avium, p. 130) gave a far better figure (though 1 Commonly believed to be so called from its cry; but Skeat (Proc. Philolog. Society, May 15, 1885) adduces evidence to prove that the Guarani Tuca is from 11, nose, and cdng, bone, i.e. nose of bone. 2 In 1656 the beak of an " Aracari of Brazil," which was a toucan sf some sort, was contained in the Musaeum tradescantianum (p. 2), out the word toucan does not appear there. 3 The writer has only been able to consult the reprint of this rare work contained in the Biblioteca de autores espanoles (xxii. 473-515), published at Madrid in 1852.
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