Toucan
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
too'kan, a family of birds allied to the parrot. There are a score of species in the forests of tropical South America . The foot is yoke-toed-two toes point forward; two backward. The larger species reach a length of twenty inches and all are brilliantly colored in scarlet, black, bronze, olive, cinnamon, orange, or green. The toucan is a ceaseless screamer. It is noticeable for an enormous saw-toothed, curved bill, which seems entirely too heavy for the body. It reaches a length of six inches in the large species, but it is really quite light and porous in structure. The toucan is an omnivorous eater, living on seeds, fish, small birds, reptiles, and insects, but chiefly on fleshy fruits. See Hornbill Touch-me-not, known also as balsam, impatiens, and jewel-weed, a favorite garden flower. The touch-me-not is related to the wood-sorrel, but it grows from one to five feet high. The plant is transparent and full of water. The stems are branching and are crowded with leaves and white, red, or variegated flowers. One sepal is prolonged into a spur. The name touch-me-not comes from the impatient nature of the seed pod. If a ripe pod be touched it springs open surprisingly, flinging its seeds to some distance. Our garden flower is a native of southern Europe. There are in all 100 kinds, found chiefly in the East Indies. Two kinds grow wild in America, one with pale yellow flowers, sometimes spotted, and one with orange-colored flowers thickly spotted with brown. Both grow in rich, damp soil in shady ravines.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's called the toucan in 1910 "a family of birds allied to the parrot," and pointed readers to the hornbill; both links have since been cut. Toucans (Ramphastidae) are now placed in the order Piciformes, closest to the barbets and woodpeckers, while the resemblance to Africa's hornbills is treated as pure convergence. The "score of species" has grown to roughly forty as forms once lumped together were split, and the bill Aiton's thought "entirely too heavy for the body" turned out to earn its keep: infrared work published in 2009 showed the toco toucan dumps body heat through its bill, using it as an adjustable radiator. The main change on the ground is habitat, with Atlantic-forest and Andean toucans now squeezed by clearance and, for the showier species, the cage-bird trade.
Written for this edition, 2026.