lo2 HISTORY or 



To this tribe of the crow-kind, some foreign sorts might be 

 ndded : I will take notice only of one, which, from the extraor- 

 dinary size and fashion of its bill, must not be passed in silence.* 

 This is the Calao, or horned Indian raven, which exceeds the 

 common raven in size, and habits of depredation. But what he 

 differs in from all other birds is the beak, which by its length 

 and curvature at the end, appears designed for rapine ; but then 

 it has a kind of horn standing out from the top, which looks 

 somewhat like a second bill, and gives this bird, otherwise fierce 

 and ugly, a very formidable appearance. The horn springs out 

 of the forehead, and grows to the upper part of the bill, being 

 of great bulk ; so that near the forehead it is four inches broad, 

 not unlike the horn of the rhinoceros, but more crooked at the 

 tip. Were the body of the bird answerable in size to the head, 

 the calao would exceed in magnitude even the vulture or the 

 eagle. But the head and beak are out of all proportion, the 

 body being noi much larger than that of a hen. Yet even here 

 there are varieties ; for in such of those birds as come from dif- 

 ferent parts of Africa, the body is proportionable to the beak ; 

 in such as come from the Molucca Islands, the beak bears no 

 proportion to the body. Of what use this extraordinary excre- 

 scence is to the bird, is not easy to determine ; it lives, like 

 others of its kind, upon carrion, and seldom has a living enemy 

 to cope with : Nature seems to sport in the production of many 

 animals, as if she were willing to exhibit instances as well of 

 variety as economy in their formation. 



CHAP. III. 



OF THE MAGPIE, AND ITS Aff INITIES. 



There are such a variety of birds that may be distributed 

 under this head, that we must not expect very precise ideas of 

 any. To have a straight strong bill, legs formed for hopping, a 

 body of about the size of a magpie, and party- coloiured plumage, 



♦ There arc also the Fish Crow, which lives on dead fish and other gar. 

 Iiage by the river and sea shore, and Clark's Crow, which resembles some* 

 what the Jackdaw, both described by Wilson in his Ornithology. 



