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Updated: May 14, 2025
A striking feature of the great Himalayan barbet is its massive yellow bill, which is as large as that of some species of toucan. Although the bird displays a number of brilliant colours, it is not at all easy to distinguish from its leafy surroundings. It is one of those birds which are heard more often than seen. Barbets are never so happy as when listening to their own voices.
Every now and then the maam or tinamou sends forth one long and plaintive whistle from the depth of the forest, and then stops; whilst the yelping of the toucan and the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo is heard during the interval.
It would have been almost as easy for a toucan to display joy, grief, or surprise. "Good afternoon, Benson," said the detective cheerfully. "Going to be rather wet for a fishing excursion, isn't it?" "That's just what I can't make up my mind, sir," replied the other. "Clouds like these do not always mean rain in this part of the world.
At one point, I recollect, a gold-green Jacamar sat on a log and looked at me till I was within five yards of her. At another we heard the screams of Parrots; at another, the double note of the Toucan; at another, the metallic clank of the Bell-bird, or what was said to be the Bell-bird.
This superb bill fades in death, and in three or four days’ time has quite lost its original colours. Till within these few years no idea of the true colours of the bill could be formed from the stuffed toucans brought to Europe. About eight years ago, while eating a boiled toucan, the thought struck me that the colours in the bill of a preserved specimen might be kept as bright as those in life.
"'To begin with, we are not fairies, but quite ordinary mortals, and we live here alone. We have no children, and no pets but Bowser, but we are never lonesome. Now Bowser is just a common toucan, and I found him on the ground under a big tree one morning, where a bad storm the night before had tossed him out of the nest.
Here too the muscovy duck is numerous, and large flocks of two other kinds wheel round you as you pass on, but keep out of gunshot. The milk-white egrets and jabirus are distinguished at a great distance, and in the aeta- and coucourite-trees you may observe flocks of scarlet and blue aras feeding on the seeds. It is to these trees that the largest sort of toucan resorts.
The relation between the extraordinarily lengthened bill of the Toucan and its mode of obtaining food, is therefore precisely similar to that between the long neck and lips of the Giraffe and the mode of browsing of the animal.
"The Toucan has an enormous bill, makes a noise like a puppy dog, and lays his eggs in hollow trees. How astonishing are the freaks and fancies of nature! To what purpose, we say, is a bird placed in the woods of Cayenne with a bill a yard long, making a noise like a puppy dog, and laying eggs in hollow trees?
Then there came a splash of fruit falling around us, announcing that birds were feeding overhead; and looking up, we discovered flocks of parakeets, or bright blue chatterers, or pompadours having delicate white wings and claret-coloured plumage. Again, with a whir a trogon on the wing would seize some fruit, or a clumsy toucan would make the branches shake as he alighted above our heads.
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