190 AFFINITIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 



innocent aliment from the juices of those flowers whose dyes 

 they themselves rival. Corresponding to them in the Old 

 World are the Honey-eaters of Australia and Sun-birds of 

 India and Africa. Those remarkable looking birds, the 

 Hornbills (Buceridce), natives of India and Africa, are an- 

 other offshoot of the great corvine nest, most probably from 

 the Carrion crow, which, in feeding, those of Africa at least 

 resemble. They are gregarious, noisy birds, generally of 

 large size, with feet short for perching, their habit being to 

 reside in trees. The tendency of the crow tribe to noise, or 

 the exercise of voice, has led in this genus to a development 

 which forms their most conspicuous feature, namely, a hollow 

 protuberance blown out, as it were, like a bag, upon the top 

 of the upper mandible, and which serves as a sounding board 

 to increase the vociferation which the bird delights to utter. 

 In immediate descent from these birds are the Plantain- 

 eaters (Musophagidce), which, however, are restricted to 

 Africa. 



The Toucans of Tropical America (Ramphastidce) are an- 

 other branch of the corvine family. They live in deep 

 forests, much after the manner of the wood-peckers, using 

 their enormous beaks and barbed tongues in searching out 

 eggs and nestlings in the hollows of trees. Singular as the 

 beak appears in this instance, it is seen to be expressly suited 

 for the objects which the bird wishes to accomplish. Let us 

 not wonder too much at a growth so extraordinary, or be too 

 eager to set it down as a feature separating the bird hope- 

 lessly from all the rest of the corvine family. Naturalists 

 daily see such modifications of this instrument, as make it very 

 easy to understand how the animal, tempted by food in pecu- 

 liar situations, came to have its beak adapted to the purpose of 

 obtaining it. The same remark will serve on our introducing 

 the Parrots (PsittacidcK) as another family of the corvine 

 stirps, some of whose special qualities, particularly garrulity 

 and imitativeness, they possess in an extraordinary degree. 

 They are distributed throughout the intertropical countries 

 of both hemispheres, as well as Australia and New Zealand. 

 Eminently arboreal in habits, in them we see the perfection 



