SFXEMIDERA GOULBJl
(mdd.¿Jluhtir, </£'*•
SELENIDERA GOULDI.
Gould’s Toucanet.
S p e c i f i c C h a r a c t e r .
Mas.—Sel. mandibula superiore nigra, apicem versus livide cornea, apice alba, fa scia q u e angusta
alba a d basin; mandibula inferiore alba, fa s c ia nigra, apiceque livide corneo, pedibus
plumbeis.
Male.—Crown, nape, throat and chest deep shining black; ear-co verts .deep orange, posterior to
which is a second tuft of yellow, the two crossing obliquely; at the nape a crescent of pale
yellow ; back, wings and upper tail-coverts rich olive-green; primaries dark brown, externally
margined with olive ; tail dark olive-green, inclining to brown; six middle feathers
tipped with chestnut; abdomen yellowish g re en ; flanks orange; thighs rufous; under
tail-coverts crimson ; upper mandible black, bounded along the serratures and posteriorly
with white, and bordered next the face with a very narrow line of greenish yellow ; under
mandible yellowish white, crossed near the apex with a band of black, and bordered
at the base with greenish yellow; tips of both mandibles very delicate green ; orbits pea-
green ; irides pea-green, with a circle of pale yellow next the p u p il; feet green.
Total length, 13 inches; bill, 2 t ; wing, 5 ; tail, 5 ; tarsi, H.
Female.—Head, neck, throat and breast reddish brown, inclining to chestnut on the former ;
ear-coverts reddish olive; in all other points the plumage is the same as in the male; the
bill is also very similar, but not so brightly coloured, and moreover has the greenish
yellow mark at the base of the under mandible dilated into a triangular form.
Pteroglossus Gouldii, Natt. in Proc. of Zool. Soc., P a rt V. p. 44.—Sturms Edit, of Goulds
Mon. of Ramph., pi. .—Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 404, Pteroglossus,
sp. 19-
Pteroglossus (Selenidera) Gouldii, Gould, Icon. Av., pi.
Selenidera Gouldi, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 95, Selenidera, sp. 1.
T h i s bird was figured for the first time in my “ leones Avium,” from specimens presented to the Zoological
Society of London by the late M. John Natterer of Vienna, who had procured them on the banks of the
River Madeira in Brazil, and who at the Meeting of the Society, held on the 11th of April, 1837, had been
pleased to name the species after myself. Since that period a great number of examples have come under
my notice from the banks of the River Amazon, which may be considered one of the natural localities of
the bird : all these specimens correspond in every respect with M. Natterer’s ; none of them exhibiting a
tendency to partake of the characters of S. maculirostris, to which the species is very nearly allied, but from
which it differs in the single large patch of black on the upper mandible, in the more intense orange
colouring of the sides of the body, and in a slight diversity in the colouring of the orbits and irides.
Although I have been so fortunate as to see many examples, it is a species seldom found in collections,
and may be considered one of the rarest of the genus.
The Plate represents two males and a female of the natural size.