BUCEPHALUS BUCER OS. 



637 



The bill is large, strong, conical, and sharp at the 

 tip, which is a little bent. Like many others of the 

 climbers, and indeed all birds which have the bases 

 of their bills beset with bristles, they are omnivorous, 

 eating insects, eggs, small birds, and fruits, and other 

 succulent vegetable substances. They build their 

 nests in the holes of trees, generally at but a small 

 height above the surface of the ground. 



They are usually divided into three sub-genera : 



1. Barbicans of Buffon. This sub-genus is found in 

 the warmer parts of the eastern continent only, but 

 in both parts of it, that is, in India and in Africa. 

 They have the culmen of the upper mandible arched, 

 but without any ridge, and blunt ; and they have two 

 strong teeth on each side of the same, on the cutting 

 edges. They are said to feed more upon vegetable 

 substances than the other two sub-genera. There are 

 many species, some of which are found in Africa, 

 some in the south-eastern parts of continental Asia, 

 and some in the eastern islands, but they are all 

 retiring, and what may be called dull birds of the 

 deep forests, and thus their manners are very imper- 

 fectly known. 



2. Barbels, properly so called (Bucco). These 

 have the bill simply conical, without any ridge on 

 the culmen, though that is a little raised in the 

 middle. They are found in the two continents, but 

 the greater number of the species belong to the 

 eastern one. They are more gay in their plumage, 

 and a little more lively in their manners, than the 

 former sub-genus. The birds belonging to that 

 are seldom seen in pairs, even in the breeding 

 season ; but those of this sub-genus are always found 

 in pairs at that time, and generally in parties of 

 about half a dozen or so at other times of the year. 



3. Tamatirif (Tamntia}. This is said to be the 

 native Brazilian name of a bird, but whether of all, 

 or of any of those of this sub-genus, is not very well 

 known. These have the bill a little larger and more 

 compressed than the former sub-genera, aritl the 

 upper mandible more hooked downward at the point. 

 Their tails are also very short, and their heads 

 disproportionately large and thick. This form gives 

 them a very dull appearance, which is in no degree 

 relieved by their manners, which are solitary, and to 

 appearance melancholy. They are found only in 

 South America, and there only in the depth of the 

 forests, to the gloom of which they rather add, by 

 the heaviness of their air, and the sluggishness of 

 their motions. They are understood to be wholly or 

 chiefly insectivorous. Their chief colours are black, 

 white, and reddish brown, very delicately mottled in 

 some of the species, but never gay. They are, in 

 fact, among the least interesting of the birds of those 

 head-quarters of the climbing birds of which they are 

 natives, and there is nothing in their manners to 

 redeem the homeliness of their appearance. 



BUCEPHALUS. A species of Distoma approach- 

 ing to the Infusoria, and even in some respects to the 

 lower forms of vegetable organisation ; it is a parasite 

 of the fresh water muscle recently discovered, and 

 deriving its name from the disproportionate size of 

 the head. 



BUCEROS (horn-bill), a very singular genus of 

 birds, combining the characters of several other 

 families, but having abundant peculiarities of their 

 own, by which they are distinguished from all the 

 other ffnora of birds. Their air and their habits 



have no inconsiderable resemblance to those of the 

 crow tribe. They are quite miscellaneous in their 

 feeding ; fruits, small mammalia, reptiles, insects, 

 carrion all come alike to them ; and they eat vora- 

 ciously, casting up their food into the air, in order to 

 swallow it, as their tongue is too short for being used 

 in the ordinary way in assisting deglutition. The feet 

 of these curious birds bear no inconsiderable resem- 

 blance to those of the king-fishers and bee-eaters 

 that is, they are in so far syndactylic, or have the 

 three front toes, which are all of nearly the same 

 length, united together at their bases, so as to form a 

 kind of solid palm or flat to the foot. This is not a 

 walking foot, neither is it one adapted for perching 

 that is, for holding on upon a branch or twig while 

 the bird performs any action with the other parts of 

 its body, but simply a foot by means of which the 

 bird can stand firmly either on the ground or on a 

 branch. To assist the birds in maintaining their 

 standing posture firmly, the toes, both the three front 

 ones and the hind one, are very much elongated, so 

 that, instead of the toes all grasping toward a point, 

 as they do in the anisodactylic feet, or toward a line 

 passing across the middle of the foot, as in the 

 zygodactylic, the two extremities grasp toward the 

 palm or flat portion of the foot ; and it will be easily 

 seen that, for mere rest, or firmness of position, this 

 description of foot is much better adapted than any 

 other. But birds with such feet cannot walk, but are 

 obliged to hop, and assist their balance in hopping 

 by raising the wings. The hopping motion is, how- 

 ever, the one best suited for capturing the prey upon 

 which these birds chiefly subsist. 



The most remarkable character of these birds, 

 however, is the bill, which is wholly unlike that of 

 any other species. It is not only ot very large size 

 and peculiar shape in itself, that is, in the mandibles, 

 which perform nearly the same function as those of 

 other birds, but in certain additional parts to which 

 there is not any thing corresponding in any other 

 species. There arc other birds which have enlarge- 

 ments at the base of the bill, as in some of the 

 varieties of pigeons ; arid there are others, as, for 

 instance, the coots, that have the horn of the upper 

 mandible extended in a plate upon the point. But 

 the horn-bills have a singular enlargement, which, in 

 some of the species, is almost as large as the bill 

 itself, of which it is not easy even to guess at an use. 

 This part of the bill is cellular, and very light in its 

 substance ; and the whole of the bill, large and 

 formidable as it appears, is weak and brittle. The 

 tomia are naturally jagged, and they are often chipped 

 into notches in the using. 



All the species have not this singular protuberance, 

 and none of them have much or any of it when they 

 first come out of the shell ; but it enlarges with age, 

 and also changes its form, so that some of the birds 

 might, at different ages, be taken for different species. 

 In using this bill they do not peck, or strike, but 

 seize their food, keep grinding it for some time 

 between the jagged tomia, and then swallow it entire. 

 They are all natives of the warmer parts of the 

 eastern continent that is, of Africa, of the south-east 

 of Asia, and of the eastern islands, and perhaps they 

 are most numerous in the last of these localities. 

 There are many species, and they are usually divided 

 into two sections those which have a protuberance 

 on the bill, and those which have not. We can find 



