370 



Tassekes.- 



-CIRDS.- 



-Blcei-.otid.e, 



to Ab}'ssinia, wlieie they are abundant ; at tlie Cape 

 they are called Minjs-voogel, or Mouse-birds, by the 

 Dutch colonists, partly on account of their soft ])li!m- 

 age, and partly from their njouse-Ifke movements in 

 the bushes. Their food consists principally of fruits. 



The Cape or White-backed Coly measures rather 

 more than six inches in length; it has the head, crest, 

 and throat ashy-gray, the forehead black, and the 

 upper surface pearly-gray, with a white band running 

 fi'om the midtUe of the back to the rump, where it 

 terminates in a small tuft of puqile feathers ; the lower 

 surface is reddish-white. The cry of this bird is 

 described as resembling the syllables qni-wi, qui-ioi, 

 ijuiiriwi, strongly articulated. With its congeners 

 it plunders the gardens at the Cape of Good Hope ; 

 descending upon these in great flocks, it attacks the 

 fruits, the buds of the trees, and even the young shoots 

 of the herbaceous plants, often destroying almost every- 

 thing in the garden in a few minutes. 



THE HOATZQf (OpisfhocoiiniK cristatus).— The true 

 jiosition of this curious bird must still be regarded 

 as doubtful. Originally described as a pheasant by 

 Linnaeus, it has been shifted about by diti'erent authors 

 between the Gallinaceous and Passerine ordeis — its 

 singular structure presenting as it were a combination of 

 the characters of bolh. It has a large convex bill, with 

 the nostrils pierced in the miiUlle of the upper man- 

 dible. The mandibles are denticulated loithin the 

 mai-gins, and the head is furnished with a large erectile 

 crest. In these and some other particulars the bird 

 would seem to approach the Musophagido;, with which 

 ]\Ir. Gray and some other ornithologists place it ; but, 

 on the other hand, the feet are very gallinaceous in 

 their character, the tarsi being reticulated, and the toes 

 alone scutcllated above. The hinder toe, also, is not 

 versatile as in the other members of the present family, 

 but the anterior toes are entirely divided, and not fur- 

 nished at the base with those small membranes which 

 ai-e generally found in gallinaceous birds. 



Whatever may be its true systematic position, the 

 lloatzin is imdoubtedly a very remarkable bird. It is 

 nearly as large as a peacock, which it resembles in 

 many of its movements. Its plumage is tawny-brown, 

 with numerous white spots and streaks upon the wings 

 and tail ; its breast is yellowish-white ; the naked skin 

 about its fice and throat is bluish ; and the elongated 

 slender feathers which form the ci'est are white on one 

 side, and black on the other. It is an inhabitant of 

 Brazil and Guiana, where it lives in small flocks on the 

 borders of the creeks and rivers. Its food is said to 

 consist exclusively of the leaves of a particular species 

 of tree, the Arum arboresecns of Limiieua. The birds 

 exhibit little fear of man ; and, as their flesh possesses 

 such a disagreeable odour, compoundeil of musk and 

 castoreum, as to be quite useless for food, they are 

 probably very seldom disturbed. The flesh is used in 

 Guiana as a bait in fishing. 



Family VI.— BUCEROTID^. 



The birds of this family, to which the name of 

 Hornhills is commonly applied, are at once distinguish- 

 able by the great size of their bills, which are often so 



enormous as to appear almost a defoiTuity, whilst in 

 many species the disproportion of this part to the rest 

 of the body is increased by the presence of a singidar 

 helmet-like swelling at its base. The bill, with this 

 appendage, looks a most ponderous and unwieldy 

 burden for the slender neck of the bird, but the whole 

 structure is usually composed of very slight materials — 

 a thin outer case, supported by a multitude of inter- 

 lacing walls, inclosing cavities fiUed with air ; and so 

 tender is the helmet-like protuberance in some species, 

 that, after the death of the bird, a pressure with the 

 thumb and finger is often sufficient to crush it in. 



The bill is long, curved, and pointed, and the 

 margins of the upper mandible are often irrcgulaily 

 toothed, as if small fragments had been broken out of 

 them ; the nostrils are placed at the base of the upper 

 mandible ; the anterior toes of the stout powerful feet 

 are more or less united together, the outer one espe- 

 cially being attached to its neighbour to such an extent 

 as to lead Cuvier to place the Hornbills with the 

 Kingfishers and Bee-eaters in his group of syndactylc 

 birds ; and the front of the tarsi and upper surface of 

 the toes are scutcllated. These birds have tolerably 

 large wings, and appear to possess considerable power 

 of flight. They are also furnished with a long and 

 broad tail, which is sometimes rounded at the extre- 

 mity, sometimes very long and gi'aduated. 



The Hornbills are inhabitants of the warmer parts 

 of the Old World, most of the species being found in 

 the Eastern islands and in Africa. They are generally 

 of large size. In a state of nature their food consists 

 principally of fruits, but they are said by some writers 

 to feast upon carrion when they meet with it, and 

 specimens in confinement have been seen to captui'e 

 rats and mice, which they swallowed whole, after 

 crushing them a little between their enormous man- 

 dibles. They will probably feed upon almost anything 

 that comes in their way. Lesson says that the Eastern 

 species are very fond of nutmegs, from which their 

 flesh acquires a delicious flavour. They usually live 

 in flocks in the forests, where they are fond of perching 

 upon the highest branches of the trees, and, like the 

 birds of the following order, they nidificate in the holes 

 of trees, which they enlarge to suit their convenience 

 by the agency of their bills. During flight the head is 

 drawn back, and the movement of the wings is very 

 rapid, producing a considerable rushing sound as the 

 birds pass through the air. This is heightened by a 

 constant clattering of the large mandibles, and the 

 occasional utterance of a loud croak. In fact, according 

 to Lesson, the noise produced by a flock of Hornbills 

 when passing along in the air is very alarming to those 

 who are unaware of its origin ; for it has no distaiU 

 resemblance to the sound of one of those sudden and 

 violent winds which often come on so unexpectedly in 

 tropical countries. 



THE RHINOCEROS HOENBUL [Bnccros Rhinoceros) 

 — Plate VI, fig. 42 — is one of the lai'gest species of this 

 family, measm'ing about three feet in length, w'ith a bill 

 of about ten inches long. Its plumage is black, with 

 the lower part of the belly, the legs, and the rump 

 white ; the tail, which is long, and broad at tlie extremity, 

 is also white, with a broad black band crossing it beyond 



