125 



HORNBILLS. 



HORNBILLS. 



120 



in the curved but somewhat shorter and more attenuated bill." 

 [Mono!.] 



In his remarks on the succeeding order, Scansores, Mr. Vigors 

 observes, that besides the deviation from the more perfect formation 

 of the foot in the Bucerida, which prepares us for the more consider- 

 able deviation that takes place in the game particular among the 

 Scansorial Birds, the large and disproportionate bill of that family is 

 carried on to the Ramphaitidtf, the first family of the Scant&res, 

 according to Mr. Vigors. 



M. Latreille arranges the Hornbills among the Syndactyles, the fifth 

 family of his second order (Passereaux, or Passerine Birds), in 

 company with the Bee-Eaters, Momoto, Kingfishers, &c. 



lu the method of M. De Blainville, as carried out by his pupil M. 

 Lherminier, the Hornbills appear among the Normal Birds (first 

 sub-class), aud as the 14th family, between the Kingfishers and the 

 Toucans. 



M. Lesson, in his ' Projet,' plaets the Buceridas as the last family 

 of his Intesiorea, or Grimpeurs, arranging it in the third tribe 

 (Syndaclylei) of that his first order. The other families of the tribe 

 are the Bee-Eaters, Aferopidce ; Kingfishers, Jfalcyonidce ; and Cocks 

 of the Rock, Rupicolidce. 



Mr. Swainson arranges the Bucerida among the Conirostra, together 

 with the Corvidn, Miirniiltr, Friny ill idee, and Mutophayidtr. After 

 noticing the peculiar conformation of the bill in the Buceridaz, he 

 observes that in some of the species that organ is without the basal 

 protuberances, so that they bear the nearest affinity to the Toucans, 

 belonging to the Scansorial tribe, which is joined to the Conirostral. 

 He considers that we have no bird which actually unites the two 

 families in so perfect a manner as that by which the Toucans are 

 blended with the Futirostret through Prionita ; and he remarks, that 

 we should expect that a bird which might conduct us from the 

 Toucans to the Hornbills would be of large size, and that it would 

 present us with some of the gay colours peculiar to the Toucans, both 

 in its bill and plumage ; but that its feet should no longer exhibit 

 the scansorial structure, inasmuch as that, as he has before remarked, 

 we see, in the little power possessed by the Toucans of climbing, 

 that nature is about to quit the scansorial structure. There is good 

 reason to believe, he thinks, that such a bird is in existence, although 

 at present only known to modern writers by a drawing executed in 

 India, in the collection of Mr. Smith. Both Dr. Latham and Dr. Shaw, 

 he adds, describe this bird under the name of the Crimson Hornbill, 

 and he considers that the figure published by the latter carries 

 internal evidence of its authenticity. Mr. Swainson sees in this bird 

 the crimson colour, the long tail, and the dorsal collar, so prevalent 

 in the genus Pteroglotiut, joined to a miniature Toucan's bill, with 

 a distinct band at the base, like the Rampluutoi Tucanut, yet with 

 the feet of a Hornbill. That this bird, and probably other annectant 

 species, will hereafter be discovered in the vast and still unexplored 

 regions of Central Asia, Mr. Swainson does not doubt. He speaks of 

 the Hornbills as a small family, of which perhaps the typical form is 

 now only known ; and he looks upon them as being as much isolated 

 as the Toucans and the Parrots. He adverts to their enormously 

 large bill*, generally furnished with an appendage or excrescence on 

 their top, the use of which, he says, is unknown ; nor has, he adds, 

 the internal structure of this member been fully ascertained. The 

 feet, he remarks, are generally so very short as to appear calculated 

 only for perching. " United," continues Mr. Swainson, " to the 

 Scansorial Birds by means of the Toucans, they would seem to 

 represent the Ratora ; but the structure of their feet, more imperfect 

 than any of the families in this order, forbids the supposition. This 

 opinion we had long entertained from theory, but it has recently 

 been confirmed by a singular fact in their economy, communicated 

 by an officer long resident in India. It seems that all the species 

 of Bucerot he has met with in a live state are constantly in the 

 habit of throwing their food up in the air and catching it before it is 

 swallowed." This propensity Mr. Swainson considers to be an 

 incipient development of the fissirostral economy. We have only to 

 add, that Mr. Swainson does not admit into the family of the 

 Buceridte the Momots (Prionitet), which he places under a lino 

 drawn at the end of the family of Troyonida. (' Classification of 

 Birds.') 



Some light will be thrown on the proper place of the bird in the 

 animal series by the following account of the anatomy of a young 

 Buceroi cavatiu by Professor Owen : The tongue was very short, of 

 a triangular form, and very smooth. The air-cells were very large, 

 and that in front of the neck contained the oesophagus and the 

 trachea. The oesophagus, as in the Toucan, was very wide, and of 

 nearly equal diameter as far as the gizzard. The gizzard was thicker 

 in its coats and of a more elongated form tlmu that of the Toucan : 

 its cuticular lining wan very tough, and disposed in longitudinal 

 ridges. After the duodenal fold the remainder of the intestinal canal 

 was disposed in two similar folds, and then extended along the middle 

 line of the back to the cloaca. There were no caeca. The coats of 

 the intestines were stronger than is usual in birds, and thd diameter 

 of the canal was more considerable, diminishing however gradually 

 frmii the commencement of the ilium, as far as the beginning of the 

 rectum, and thence becoming wider to its termination. The whole 

 i .if tho intc.-diiirM was 6 feet ; that of the bird, from the end of 



the bill to the vent, being 2 feet 2 inches, of which the bill measured 

 7 inches. The liver had the usual two lobes, of which the right was 

 the largest. The gall-bladder was of considerable size. The pancreas, 

 of an elongated slender form, had a small oval enlargement at its 

 commencement at the lower end of the spleen, and a flattened oblong 

 mass or head at the bottom of the duodenal fold : it accompanied the 

 duodenum throughout its length, being folded on itself similarly to 

 the intestine. Its secretion was conveyed into the intestine by three 

 ducts ; one from its head, which entered the duodenum at the bend 

 of the fold ; the others from the elongated lobes, which terminated 

 close together at the end of the fold between the insertions of the 

 hepatic ducts ; an arrangement corresponding with that which exists 

 in the Heron. In the cloaca the rudimentary bladder was little 

 more than a line in width, and the ridges bounding it above and below 

 were confined to the back part of the cavity. The bursa Fabricii 

 (which Professor Owen regards as analogous to the glandular pouch 

 found in so many other classes) was of a triangular form, large, and sur- 

 rounded, as usual, by a capsule of muscular fibres. 



The muscles of the mandibles consisted of a digastricus, or of a 

 muscle analogous to it, destitute, as is usual in birds, of a middle 

 tendon, a temporal muscle of moderate size, and pterygoidei externi 

 and interni, proportionally more developed. There is also a strong 

 ligament occupying the place of the masseter, and a second, destined 

 to prevent dislocation backwards, which passes from the zygoma 

 directly backwards to the coudyle, or articulate depression of the 

 lower jaw. Disproportionate as this apparatus seems to the moving 

 of so large a body as the bill of the Hornbill, it is yet fully adequate, 

 the weight of that organ by no means corresponding with its size. 

 The cavities in the bones, the arrangement of the columns supporting 

 their parietes, and the air-cells, produce at the same time lightness 

 and strength. 



With respect to the other parts of the skeleton, Professor Owen parti- 

 cularly noticed the extension of the air-cells into the distal bones of 

 the extremities. He remarked that Mr. Hunter observes how, in the 

 Pelican, the air passes not only into the ulna and radius, but " into 

 those bones which answer to the carpus and metacarpus of quadru- 

 peds." In the Hornbill the air passes also into the bones corresponding 

 to the phalanges ; and in the posterior extremity that it permeates 

 the tibiae, tarsi, aud phalanges. 



Professor Owen concludes by some remarks on the affinities of the 

 Hornbill as deducible from its anatomy. Its nearest approach is to 

 the Toucan. The Toucan however, in the want of a gall-bladder, 

 agrees with the Parrots ; the presence of that organ in the Hornbill 

 places the bird in more immediate relation with the Crows. The 

 disposition of the intestines in long and narrow loops also agrees 

 with the Raven. The tongue, so remarkably varied in form and use 

 among the Scaiuora, resembles in the Hornbill that of the Carnivorous 

 Birds. (' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,' 1833.) 



Buccrui. Bill long, very large, compressed, more or less curved or 

 falcated ; base smooth, elevated, or rather surmounted by a casque or 



Head of Rhinoceros Hornbill (liuceros Rhinoceros). 



l-'oot of Bucerot cai-ntu*. 



