PASSERINiE. »»<>• 



ncra, a genus which has not as much resemblance to the other Syndacty- 

 la^ as they have to each other, and one which may very properly be made 

 to form a particular family. It is the 



BucEROs, Lin. 



Tlie Hornbills are large birds of Africa and India, whose enormous 

 dentated bill is studded with excrescences, which sometimes equal in size 

 the bill itself, and which are always of considerable extent above. Tliis 

 renders them very remarkable, and allies them to the Toucans, while, at 

 the same time, their carriage and habits approximate them to the Crows, 

 and their feet to the Bee-eaters and the King-fishers. The shape of these 

 excrescences on the bill varies with age, and in the very young bird they 

 are not even visible ; the interior is generally cellular. The sternum is 

 slightly emarginated behind on both sides. The tongue is small, and 

 placed at the bottom of the throat; they live on all sorts of food, eat soft 

 fruits, hunt mice, small birds, reptiles, and do not even despise carrion *. 



emaiginated bill and the external toe free, such as the Todus resrus, Enl. 2S9; — para- 

 disaug, lb, 2U;—leucocephalus, Pall. Spic. VI, iii, 2;— the two Platyrhinci of Des- 

 marets, which are the 7'od, rostratns and nasulus of Shaw, or Tod, platijrhynchos and 

 macrorhynchos, Gm. Vieill. gives the first, Gal. 126. 



• Hornbills with excrescences. Buc. rhinoceros, Enl. 934, Vaill. Callans, 

 1 and 2; D. africanus, VailL, pL 17, f. 2, may be a mere variety from age; nigcr, 

 Vaill. 13, according to Tem, isa badly preserved specimen of the same; — monoceros, 

 Sh. Enl. 873; Vaill. 9, 10, 11, \2;— cassidis, Tcmm. Col. 2\Q;—malaharicus, Lath. 

 VI, ii, or albirnstrh, Sh.; Vaill, Col. 14 ;~biicci7iator, T, Col. 2S4;—givgianus, Sonn. 

 Voy. 1 1, pi, cxxi ! Vaill. 1 5 ; — hicornis, Vaill. 7, the adnlt female ; cavatus, Id. 4, is the 

 male at a middle age. The pi. 3 and 5 are altered specimens of the same — B. hydro- 

 corax, Enl. 282, the young bird; Col. 283, the adult; — violncens, Id. 19; — abyssinicus, 

 Enl, 779, the middle age; Vaill. Afr. 230, 231, the adult; Vieill. Gal, \'d\;—sulcatus, 

 T, Col. 69;—p(i7iayensis, Enl. 780, the female, and 781, the old male; Vaill. Col. 16, 

 17, and 18; wanillensis, Enl. 891, should be the young bird;— /dida^us, Vaill. Afr, 

 2Z?i;—exaratus, T, Col, 211. 



Hornbills without excrescences. B. jnvanicns, Vaill. Cal. 22, the young 

 male ; Afr, 239, the old male, same as the Cal. de Waidjiou, Labill. Voy., B. undulatus, 

 Vaill. Cal, 20 and 21, are females of the same; B. erythrurhi/nchos, Enl. 260; Vaill. 

 Afr. 238, tlie young one;~hastatvs, Cuv.! Enl. 890, Vaill, 236, 237 ;— corona^o*, 

 Vaill, Afr. 231, 235 i—bengakusts, Cal. 23. 



N.B. The B.galeatus, of which we only have the head, Enl. 933, and which Vail- 

 lant erroneously considers as an aquatic bird, is a true Hornbill, but whose excres- 

 cence on the beak is invested with an excessively thick horn, the anterior portion of 

 it particularly. 



See the general article on the Hornbills, by Temminck, in the text of the Planches 

 Colorices. P. S. It is to General Hardwick that we are at length indebted for a know- 

 ledge of the B.galeatus, which proves to be, in fact, a true Hornbill, with along cu- 

 neiform tail; black; white belly; the tail yellowish, with a black band near the end. 

 Lin, Tr. XIV,pl. xxviii. 



