210 AFFINITIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 



Australia and Sun-birds of India and Africa. Those remark- 

 able looking birds, the Hornbills (Buceridce), natives of India 

 and Africa, are another offshoot of the great corvine nest, most 

 probably from the Carrion crow, which, in feeding, those of 

 Africa at least resemble. They are gregarious, noisy birds, 

 generally of large size, with feet short for perching, their habit 

 being to reside in trees. The tendency of the crow tribe to 

 noise, or the exercise of voice, has led in this genus to a deve- 

 lopment which forms their most conspicuous feature, namely, a 

 hollow protuberance, blown out, as it were, like a bag, upon 

 the top of the upper mandible, and which serves as a sounding 

 board to increase the vociferation which the bird delights to 

 utter. In immediate descent from these birds appear the 

 Plantain-eaters (Musophagidce), which, however, are restricted 

 to Africa. 



The Toucans of Tropical America (JRamphastidce) are another 

 branch of the corvine family. They live in deep forests, much 

 after the manner of the woodpeckers, using their enormous 

 beaks and barbed tongues in searching out eggs and nestlings 

 in the hollows of trees. Singular as the beak appears in this 

 instance, it is seen to be expressly suited for the objects which 

 the bird wishes to accomplish. Let us not w r onder too much 

 at a growth so extraordinary, or be too eager to set it down as 

 a feature separating this bird hopelessly from all the rest of 

 the corvine family. Naturalists daily see such modifications 

 of this instrument, as make it very easy to understand how 

 the animal, tempted by food in peculiar situations, came to 

 have its beak adapted to the purpose of obtaining it. The 

 same remark will serve on our introducing the Parrots (Psit- 

 tacidcB) as another family of the corvine stirps, some of whose 

 special qualities, particularly garrulity and imitativeness, they 

 possess in an extraordinary degree. They are distributed 

 throughout the intertropical countries of both hemispheres, as 

 well as Australia and New Zealand. Eminently arboreal in 

 habits, in them we see the perfection of the scansorial or zygo- 

 dactyle form of the foot, the outer toe being turned completely 

 behind. 



In the stone record there are, as is well known, few entries 

 of birds ; but such as there are, bear a general correspondence 

 with this view of the genealogy of the class. The Connecticut 

 footsteps chiefly point to tribes which stand early in the pedi- 

 gree, namely, species allied in structure to the snipes and 

 plovers. Others, from their gigantic size, have been thought 



