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TOURACOU

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 102 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TOURACOU , the name, evidently already in use, under which in 1743 G. See also:

Edwards figured a See also:pretty See also:African See also:bird,' and presumably that applied to it in See also:Guinea, whence it had been brought alive. It is the Cuculus persa of See also:Linnaeus, and Turacus (After See also:Schlegel.) See also:White-Crested Touracou (Turacus albicristatus). or Corythaix persa of later authors. See also:Cuvier in 1799 or 1800 Latinized its native name (adopted in the meanwhile by both See also:French and See also:German writers) as above, for which barbarous See also:term J. K. W. Illiger, in 1811, substituted a more classical word. In 1788 Isert described and figured (Beobacht. Gesellsch. naturf. Freunde, 16-zo, pl. I) a bird, also from Guinea, which he called Musophaga violacea.

Its See also:

affinity to the See also:original Touracou was soon recognized, and both forms have been joined by See also:modern systematists in the See also:family Musophagidae, commonly Englished See also:Plantain-eaters or Touracous. To take first the Plantain-eaters proper, or the genus Musophaga, of which only two See also:species are known. One, about the See also:size of a See also:crow, is comparatively See also:common in museums, and has the horny See also:base of its yellow See also:bill prolonged backwards over the forehead in a See also:kind of See also:shield. The See also:top of the See also:head and the primaries, except their See also:outer edge and tip, are deep See also:crimson; a white streak extends behind the See also:eye; and the See also:rest of the plumage is glossy See also:purple. The second species, M. rossae, which is rare, chiefly differs by wanting the white eye-streak. Then of the Touracous—the species origin-ally described is about the size of a See also:jay, and has the head, See also:crest (which is vertically compressed and tipped with red), See also:neck and See also:breast of grass-See also:green, varied by two white streaks—one, from the gape to the upper See also:part of the crimson See also:orbit, separated by a See also:black patch from the other, which runs beneath and behind the eye. The wing-coverts, See also:lower part of the back, and tail are of See also:steel-purple, the primaries deep crimson, edged and tipped with bluish black. Over a dozen other congeneric species, more or less resembling this, have been described, and all inhabit some See also:district of See also:Africa. One, found in the Cape See also:Colony and See also:Natal, where it is known as the " See also:Lory " (cf. xv. 7, See also:note I), though figured by See also:Daubenton and others, was first differentiated in 1841 by See also:Strickland (See also:Ann. Nat. See also:History, vii.

33) as Turacus albicristatus—its crest having a conspicuous white border, while the steel-purple of T. persa is replaced by a See also:

rich and glossy bluish green of no less beauty. In nearly all the species of this genus the nostrils are almost completely hidden by the frontal feathers; but there are two others in which, though closely allied, this is not the See also:case, and some systematists would See also:place them in a See also:separate genus Gallirex; while another species, the See also:giant of the family, has been moved into a third genus as Corythaeola cristata. This differs from any of the foregoing by the See also:absence of the crimson coloration of the primaries, and seems to See also:lead to another See also:group, Schizorrhis, in which the plumage is of a still plainer type, and, moreover, the nostrils here are not only exposed but in the See also:form of a slit, instead of being See also:oval as in all the ' Apparently the first ornithologist to make the bird known was Albin, who figured it in 1738 from the See also:life, yet badly, as " The See also:Crown-bird of See also:Mexico." He had doubtless been misinformed as to its proper See also:country; but Touracous were called " Crown-birds " by the Europeans in See also:West Africa, as See also:witness Bosman's Description of the See also:Coast of Guinea (2nd ed., 1721), p. 251, and W. See also:Smith's Voyage to Guinea (1715), p. 149, though the name was also given to the crowned See also:cranes, Balearica.rest. This genus contains about See also:half-a-dozen species, one of which, S. concolor, is the See also:Grey Touracou of the colonists in Natal, and is of an almost See also:uniform slaty See also:brown. A See also:good See also:deal has been written about these birds, which form the subject of a beautiful monograph —De Toerako's afgebeld en beschreven—by Schlegel and Westerman, brought out at See also:Amsterdam in 186o; while further See also:information is contained in an elaborate See also:essay by Schalow (Journ. f. ornithologie, 1886, pp. I-77). Still, much remains to be made known as to their See also:distribution throughout Africa and their habits. They seem to be all See also:fruit-eaters, and to frequent the highest trees, seldom coming to the ground. Very little can be confidently asserted as to their See also:nidification, but at least one species of Schizorrhis is said to make a rough See also:nest and therein See also:lay three eggs of a See also:pale See also:blue See also:colour.

An extraordinary peculiarity attends the crimson coloration which adorns the primaries of so many of the Musophagidae. So See also:

long ago as 1818, Jules Verreaux observed (Prot. Zool. Society, 1871, p. 40) that in the case of T. albicristatus this beautiful See also:hue vanishes on exposure to heavy See also:rain and reappears only after some See also:interval of See also:time and when the feathers are dry.' The Musophagidae form a distinct family, of which the Cuculidae are the nearest See also:allies, the two being associated to Corm the Cuculine as compared with the Psittacine See also:division of Cuculiform birds (see BIRD and See also:PARROT). T. C. Eyton pointed out (Ann. Nat. History, 3rd See also:series, vol. ii. p. 458) a feature possessed in common by the latter and the Musophagidae, in the " See also:process attached to the anterior edge of the ischium," which he likened to the so-called " marsupial " bones of Didelphian mammals. J.

T. Reinhardt has also noticed (Vidensk. meddels. naturhist. forening, 1871, pp. 326-341) another Cuculine See also:

character offered by the os uncinatum affixed to the lower See also:side of the ethmoid in the Plantain-eaters and Touracous; but too much dependence must not be placed on that, since a similar structure is presented by the See also:frigate-bird (q.v.) and the petrels (q.v.). A corresponding process seems also to be found in See also:Trogon (q.v.). The bill of nearly all the species of Musophagidae is curiously serrated or denticulated along the margin and the feet have the outer toe reversible, but usually directed backwards. No member of the family is found outside of the See also:continental portion of the Ethiopian region. (A.

End of Article: TOURACOU

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