HORNBILLS. 



frequenting trees in damp and shady places. They generally sit bn the low 

 naked branches in the forests, from which they dart upon butterflies, spearing 

 them with their long bills ; their haunts, indeed, may frequently be discovered 

 by the ground being strewn by the beautiful wings of their -victims. 



"A bird called Jacamar," says Mr. Waterton, " is often mistaken for a king- 

 fisher, but it has no relationship (in its habits) with that tribe. It frequently 

 sits on the trees overhanging the water, and as its beak bears some resem- 

 blance to that of a kingfisher, this may probably account for its being taken 

 for one. It feeds entirely upon insects, sits on a branch in motionless expec- 

 tation, and as soon as a fly, butterfly, or moth passes, by, it darts at it, and 

 returns to the branch it had just left. It seems an indolent, sedentary bird, 

 shunning the society of all others. It never visits cultivated grounds, but re- 

 mains all the year round in the woods. There are four species of jacamar in 

 Demerara ; they are all beautiful, the largest superb. Its plumage is of so fine 

 a changing blue and golden green, that it may take rank with the choicest of 

 the humming-birds." 



Notwithstanding the positive assertion of Mr. Waterton, it would appear 

 that certain species do frequent the borders of rivers and brooks, and feed on 

 fishes and their young fry. Some of them build in holes in trees, others, like 

 the kingfishers, make burrows in the banks of rivers. The entrance of these 

 excavations is about an inch and a half in diameter; and the eggs, usually 

 three in number,, are placed at a distance of about eight inches from the 

 external opening. 



FAMILY V. 

 THE HORNBILLS. BUCEROTID.'E.* 



Gkneral Charactickistics.— Bill more or less lengthened, curved, and broad at the 

 base and compressed at the end, with the culmen furnished with a singularly-formed 

 helmet, or only curved at the tip, which is acute ; the nostrils basal, and usually 

 rounded ; the wings moderate ; the tail generally long, broad, and more or less 

 graduated ; the tarsi, in most, short and strong ; the toes moderate, strong, and 

 more or less united at their base, especially the outer one ; the claws short and rather 

 obtuse. 



The birds of this family are at once distinguished by the great 

 size of their bills, which are often so enormous as to appear almost 

 a deformity ; whilst in many species the disproportion of this part 

 to the rest of the body is increased by the presence of a singulai 

 helmet-like swelling at the base. The bill, with this appendage, 

 looks like a ponderous and unwieldy burden for the slender neck 

 of the bird ; but the whole structure is composed of very light 



* ^oOy, bous, an ox; Kdpa^, keras, a horn : so called because the bill somewhat 

 resembles the horn of an ox. 



