Show THE TOUCAN A Queer South American Bird With an Extraordinarily Ex-traordinarily Large Bill A queer kind is the toucan It seems to have been made expressly to take charge of its huge banana shaped beak which in some species is fully 7 inches in length and more than 2 inches in widthentirely out of proportion to its comparatively small body This bade Is the most brilliant possession of the toucan being orange and black scarlet and yellow or green and red according to the species of the bird Its home is in the wild South American Ameri-can woods where mingled with the screaming of parrots macaws and other tropical birds is heard its monotonous cry Tucano tuconol from which its name is probably derived It is a fruit eater and climbing among the branches it gathers its food with its long beak whose strength no stem can resist The toucan nests in trees and it is uncertain whether it excavates its burrow bur-row or builds in a natural cavity Nothing more comical can be imagined than the head of this creature with its sparkling eyes and enormous gayly colored col-ored beak appearing from a hollow in the trunk of some forest monarch It is said i thfv thof dngJiirds are subject to the attoenr v monkeys c nd birds of prey and t a f when the parent biru As irinrniejall she has to do Is to poke hei I head out of the aperture leading to the nest The assailant seeing so huge a f bill fancies jra animal of corresponding r size behind it and leaves without bowing bow-ing or saying farewell Toucans are sociable birds and go in largo flocks They make common cause against their enemies such as owls and falcons which they surround and mob as the rooks do in England Having thus no need r for protection they pro noisy and clamorous like parrots and monkeys The plumage is generally black but the throat is white tinged with yellow ami commonly edged beneath with red The tail is nearly square or moderately rounded with the upper feathers red and the lower scarlet Alternations of the brighter colors arc displayed in the feathers of the throat the breast and the tail The bird is kept easily in confinement confine-ment and no doubt from early times many were brought alive to Europe Some of its brilliant tints are very fleeting fleet-ing and they often leave little or no trace after death so that little idea of Its beauty can be obtained from a stuffed specimen Philadelphia Times The roots of the unit am ern srss plied with a bloodvessel of its own and with proper nerves though the latter do not extend into the hair itself On the health of the roots of the hair the whole growth depends On either side of the root and a little above it are two small glands which secrete an oily substance sub-stance that gives gloss to tho hair and the glands servo to protect the roots of the hair from becoming plogged with dust Each separate hair is a hollow tube and through its length is conveyed the food essential to health and growth Pittshurg Dispatch |