II. Researches on turacine, an animal pigment containing copper

From four species ofTouraco , or Plantain-eater, the author has extracted a remarkable red pigment. It occurs in about fifteen of the primary and secondary pinion feathers of the birds in question, and may be extracted by a dilute alkaline solution, and reprecipitated without change by an acid. It is distinguished from all other natural pigments yet isolated, by the presence of 5·9 per cent, of copper, which cannot be removed without the destruction of the colouring-matter itself. The author proposes the nameturacine for this pigment. The spectrum of turacine shows two black absorption-bands, similar to those of scarlet cruorine; turacine, however, differs from cruorine in many particulars. It exhibits great constancy of composition, even when derived from different genera and species of Plantain-eater; as, for example, theviolacea , theCorythaix albo-cristata , and theC. porphyreolopha .