laying two or more white eggs. A pair bred in my garden at Saugor on the cross-beam of a vinery. The perfectly circular entrance was on the under side of the beam. This nest appeared to me to have been used for several years, and the bird had gone on lengthening the cavity year by year, till the distance from the original entrance was four or five feet; another entrance had then been made, also from below, about two feet and a half from the nest. Quite recently I discovered a nest built by this bird in a hole of a decayed tree-branch, close to a house in a large thoroughfare in Calcutta." The Golden, or Crimson-breasted Barbet, as it is sometimes called, subsists upon the fruit of various plants, but, according to Blyth, has also been known to eat animal food. The eggs are white, and two or more in number. THE TOUCAN BARBET. The TOUCAN BARBET (_Tetragonops ramphastinus_), an American species, may be regarded as the connecting link between the Barbets and Toucans. In these birds the powerful beak is square at its base, and the lower mandible forked at its extremity in such a manner as to receive the hook in which the upper portion of the bill terminates; the wings and tail are both of moderate size, and the latter much graduated; the head, a band on the nape, the wing-covers, and tail are black; the upper portion of the tail is brownish grey, and its lower part of a yellowish hue; the throat is adorned by a triangular white spot; the throat and sides of the belly are grey, and a line dividing the former from the latter bright scarlet; the centre of the breast is a rich fiery red. The eye is yellowish; the beak yellow at its base and black at its tip; the feet are deep grey. This species is eight inches and a quarter long; the wing measures four inches and the tail three inches and three-quarters. We are entirely without particulars concerning this beautiful bird, except that it inhabits Ecuador. * * * * * The HORNBILLS (_Bucerotidæ_) are remarkable for the unusual size of their bills, which are frequently so large as to appear almost a deformity; in many species this effect is increased by a singular, helmet-shaped excrescence at the base of the beak. The whole structure, which appears so ponderous, is in reality very light, being composed of an outer case, supported by a bony net-work filled with air; so delicate is this helmet-like protuberance in some species, that after the death of the bird it may readily be crushed with the thumb and finger. In shape this remarkable beak is long, curved, and pointed; the margins of the upper mandible are often irregularly incised. The feet, which are stout and powerful, have the anterior toes more or less united. * * * * * The TOUCANS (_Ramphastidæ_) are a numerous race of South American birds, at once recognisable by the prodigious size of their beaks, and by the richness of their plumage.