HORNBILL. 



large prominence or appendix seated on the upper 

 mandible, differing in shape in the different spe- 

 cies. The Hornbills may be said to be both car- 

 nivorous and frugivorous, feeding not only on va- 

 rious berries and other vegetable substances, but 

 also on any putrid animal substances, and not un- 

 frequently on many of the smaller kind of living 

 animals, as mice, birds, &c. but perhaps principally 

 on insects. Their large bills are of much less real 

 than apparent strength, the substance being not 

 solid, but of a cancellated internal structure: the 

 mandibles are serrated in an outward direction, and 

 the serratures are often irregular, owing to the in- 

 jury the bill occasionally receives during its em- 

 ployment in seizing on various vegetable and ani- 

 mal matters. The Hornbills vary much in the 

 appearance of the bill during the different periods 

 of their age: the process or appendix not exhibiting 

 its genuine form till the full growth of the bird ; a 

 circumstance which, added to the difference bet ween 

 the males and females, often causes great difficulty 

 in the determination of the species. 



