190 HORNBILL. 



deep crimson blood-red colour of the fleshy part of a 

 ripe cherry. Its note is very simple, but has one pecu- 

 liarity: viz., that although the bird may be close at 

 hand, the sound appears to come from a distance; arid 

 as it lives generally in the most secluded shades of the 

 forest, it is not improbable that this deception in its 

 note may often be the means of preserving its life, the 

 hunter being thus led away from an object so easily 

 discovered; but which, owing to the apparently distant 

 sound, he little suspects to be within his reach. 



TABLE VIII. (See page 12.) 



Order 2. PASSERINE. Tribe 2. SERRATIROSTRAL (serrated 

 bills), so called from the jagged or tooth-like edges of the bill. 



THIS tribe consists but of three genera: 1. The Plant- 

 cutter; 2. theMomots; 3. the Hornbill; all foreign birds, 

 and their habits but little known. Of the last, namely, 

 the Hornbills (Buceros), living specimens are occasionally 

 taken ; and in the Spring of 1833, one was procured 

 for the Zoological Gardens, in the Regent's Park, Lon- 

 don, but notwithstanding every attention, it did not live 

 long. Of the seemingly deformed and monstrous bills 

 of these birds, we have already spoken. 



Of their use, we are still much in the dark, but if, 

 as may be presumed, the horny substance is furnished 

 with highly sensible nerves, for the purpose of smelling 

 or feeling, we can more easily account for their instinc- 

 tive discovery of 

 snakes, on the eggs 

 of which, as well 

 as insects and fish, 

 they feed. On pas- 

 sing over a spot 

 where the snake 

 has concealed itself, 

 though many feet 

 under ground, the 



