I was put in possession of this rare and unknown bird, by the dispersion of the most magnificent assemblage of natural productions that ever marked the zeal of an individual, or ornamented the capital of this kingdom. Mr. Bullock's Museum is now scattered; yet the objects it comprised were deemed worthy of enriching the public repositories of every nation in Europe; who sent their learned men to purchase with avidity, and share in the spoils of a Museum, the dispersion of which will be long regretted by the learned, the inquiring, and "the many."
PTEROGLOSSUS inscriptus,
Lettered Aracari.
Generic Character.—See Pl. 44.
Specific Character.
- P. fusco-viridis, capite gulâque nigris (feminæ castaneis;) uropygio rubro; abdomine flavo; rostri fulvi culmine, basi et apice nigris; marginibus dentatis, lineis nigris inscriptis.
- Obscure green; head and throat black, (in the female chesnut;) rump crimson; body yellow; bill fulvous, the top, base, and tip, black; the margins dentated, and marked with black lines resembling characters.
Total length, twelve inches and a half; bill, from the angle of the mouth to the tip, two inches three tenths long, and eight tenths across the base; the colour (which appears little changed from that in the live state) is deep straw, or buff yellow; the top of the upper mandible and tips of both are black; parallel with the marginal base of the upper, is a black line, which is very broad on that of the lower; the edges of both are serrated, and marked by short black lines, somewhat resembling oriental characters; at the base of the bill there is an elevated rim of deeper yellow; the ears, chin, and throat are deep chesnut, margined in front with a narrow line of black, (which parts in the male are entirely black;) the crown of the head and neck above also black, changing to a dark bluish green on the wings, back, and tail; the rump crimson, and the greater quills blackish; from the breast to the vent straw-coloured yellow, with a greenish cast; the thighs and flanks olive; tail wedged, near five inches long; the orbits appear to have been black, and the feet green.
Mr. Bullock informed me he had the two sexes of this bird sent him from the interior of Guyana.