Also touracou, -caw, turaco, -ko, -koo. [= F. touraco, Du. toerako: native name in W. Africa of Turacus persa.
Buffon, Hist. Nat. Oiseaux (1783), calls it tourocco, which name he claims to have invented from the first part of tourterelle turtle dove + hocco, Fr. name of the curassow; but the bird was known to G. Edwards 40 years earlier as touraco.]
Any bird of the family Musophagidæ (plantain-eaters), natives of southern, west, and central Africa, and esp. of the genus Turacus (or Corythaix), large birds with brilliant purple, green, and crimson plumage and prominent crest (hence formerly called crown-birds); also of the genus Schizorrhis, with plumage of a plainer character.
1743. G. Edwards, Hist. Birds, I. 7. The Touraco. This Bird is about the Bigness of a Magpye or Jay; the Make of its Body is rather long than round; the Head of a moderate Size.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVI. 29/2. The Touracos … feed principally on soft fruits.
1861. Du Chaillu, Equat. Afr., vii. 77 (Among the Fans). His head was … decorated with the red feathers of a touracaw.
1863. R. F. Burton, Abeokuta, I. 38. The gay crested touraco (Corythaix), with its jay-like manner, beautiful and harsh-voiced as the Maids of Athens, aired its gorgeous coat in the sunbeams upon the tree-top.
1896. List Anim. Zool. Soc., 321. Turacus persa … Senegal Touracou…. West Africa…. T. livingstonii … Livingstone’s Touracou…. British Central Africa…. T. corythaix … White-crested Touracou…. South Africa. Ibid., 322. Gallirex chlorochlamys … Green-necked Touracou…. Schizorhis africana … Variegated Touracou.
