Descriptions of the Strepitores. 589 



Art. IV. — Analytic Descriptions of the Groups of Birds composing 

 the Order Strepitores. By Edward Blyth, Esq. 



No. 3. — Buceroides, or the Hornbill and Hoopoe Tribes. 



For the first intimation of the particular affinity subsisting 

 between the hornbills and the hoopoes, I am indebted to my 

 friend Mr. Gould, who, judging from external structure and 

 habits alone, has long suspected these genera to be especially 

 allied. I arrived at the same conclusion, however, by a dif- 

 ferent train of investigation, and gradually, as I obtained some 

 knowledge of the leading details of their anatomy ; and have 

 since long hesitated with respect to the amount of their ap- 

 proximation, as to whether it would be more consistent to 

 regard them as distinct tribes, equivalent to the Cylindriros- 

 tres, Angulirostres, and Serratirostres respectively, into 

 which the Halcyoides are primarily distributed, or merely as 

 different families of the same tribe, analogous to the Todidce 

 (todies), and {xalbulidce (jacamars), which together compose 

 my tribal group Angulirostres. A recent opportunity of stu- 

 dying some living hoopoes has now decided me to adopt the 

 former course, and [ shall accordingly designate the insulated 

 genera in question Appendirostres (contracted from Appendi- 

 cirostres) and Arculirostres. 



On inspecting the skeletons of these birds,* it is at once 

 apparent that they require separation from the Caniores ; and 

 the digestive and vocal organs indicate the propriety of ad- 

 mitting them among the series of groups which compose the 

 present order. The connected toes of the hornbills then tend 

 to approximate that genus to the other Syndactyli, one tribe 

 of which (the Cylindrirostres) both the hornbills and hoopoes 

 further resemble in the very short, heart-shaped form of the 

 tongue, while the beak is analogously much elongated ; and 

 also in a circumstance connected with the digestive function, 

 manifested by the peculiar fact of their nest-holes being ren- 

 dered exteriorly fetid and conspicuous by the accumulating 

 fodces of the young, — the liquid consistence of which (unen- 

 closed by a film) unfits it for removal by the parents, a par- 

 ticular which is likewise in accordance with the Raptores. — 

 The first plumage, also, of these birds (as in the Cylindriros- 

 tres) is similar in character to that of the adult ; and there is 

 every reason to believe, that, in the hornbills as in the hoo- 



* There are specimens of both in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. 



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