THE BEAK. 



proportion as the bills of other birds, it might prove a very 

 serious weight, and materially impede its flight, if not quite 

 weigh it down to the ground. It is, however, so remarkably 

 light and hollow, as to be no inconvenience whatever, so that 

 the bird can fly with such swiftness and" certainty as to catch 

 grapes and other fruit thrown to it before they fall to the 

 ground In its operation, too, it differs from those of other 

 birds j seizing and acting upon the substances within its grasp, 

 by a lateral or side-way rather than up-and-down or perpen- 

 dicular motion. But they do not always confine themselves 

 to fruits, their beaks being equally calculated by their mus- 

 cular strength for crushing the bones of small birds ; and in 

 their native forests they are seen perched on high trees, watch- 

 ing the moment when old birds leave their nests, when down 

 they pounce, and feed on the young ones, and even contest 

 a prize with the monkeys. How skilfully, and at the same 

 time how powerfully he can use this apparently awkward and 

 cumbrous bill of his, we learn from the way in which a 

 Toucan, which was for some years kept in the Museum of the 

 Zoological Gardens in London, disposed of a small bird. The 

 moment the owner of the Toucan introduced his hand with 

 the small bird into the cage, the Toucan, which was on its 

 perch, snatched it with its bill. The poor little bird was dead 

 in an instant, killed by the violence of the squeeze. As soon 

 as it was dead, the Toucan hopped with it still in its bill to 



Beaks of Hombills. 



another perch, and then placing it with his bill between his right 



foot and the perch, began to strip off the feathers. "When he 



had plucked away most of them he broke the bones of the 



* Buceros violaceus and rhinoceros. 



