174 



HORNBILL. 



is very simple, but has one peculiarity : viz., that although 

 the bird may be close at hand, the sound appears to come 

 from a distance ; and as it lives generally in the most secluded 

 shades of the forest, it is not improbable that this deception 

 in its note may often be the means of preserving its life, the 

 hunter being thus led away from an object so easily dis- 

 covered ; but which, owing to the apparently distant sound, 

 he little suspects to be within his reach. 



TABLE VIII. (See page 12.) 



Order 2. PASSERINE. Tribe 2. SERRATIROSTRAL (serrated 

 bills), so called from the jagged or tooth-like edges of the 

 bill. 



rPHIS tribe consists of but three genera: 1. the Plant- 

 -*- cutter; 2. the Momots; 3. the Hornbill; all foreign 

 birds, and their habits but little known. Of the last, namely, 

 the Hornbills (Buceros), living specimens are occasionally 

 taken ; and in the spring of 1833, one was procured for the 

 Zoological Gardens, in the Eegent's Park, London, but not- 

 withstanding every attention, it did not live long. Of the 

 seemingly deformed and monstrous bills of these birds, we 

 have already spoken. 



Of their use, we are still much in the dark, but if, as may 

 be presumed, the horny substance is furnished with highly 

 sensible nerves, for the purpose of smelling or feeling, we can 

 more easily account for their instinctive discovery of snakes, 



on the eggs of which, 

 as well as insects 

 and fish, they feed. 

 On passing over a 

 spot where the snake 

 has concealed itself, 

 though many feet un- 

 der ground, the Horn- 

 bill immediately be- 

 gins digging till it 



