472 AVES— HORNBILL. 



The usual place where the great horned owl breeds is in the cavern of a 

 rock, the hollow of a tree, or the turret of some ruined castle. Its- nest is 

 near three feet in diameter, and composed of sticks, bound together by the 

 fibrous roots of trees, and lined Avith leaves on the inside. It lays about 

 three eggs, which are larger than those.of a hen, and of a color somewhat 

 resembling the bird itself. The lesser owl of this kind never makes a nest 

 for itself, but always takes up with the old nest of some other bird, which it 

 has often been forced to abandon. It lays four or five eggs; and the young 

 are all white at first, but change color in about a fortnight. The other owls 

 in general build near the place where they chiefly prey ; that which feeds 

 upon birds, in some neighboring grove ; that which preys chiefly upon mice, 

 near some farmer's yard, where the proprietor of the place takes care to give 

 it perfect security. In fact, whatever mischief one species of owl may do in 

 the woods, the barn owl makes a sufficient recompense for, by being equally 

 active in destroying mice nearer home ; so that a single owl is said to be 

 more serviceable than half a dozen cats in ridding the barn of its domestic 

 vermin. "In the year 1580," says an 'old writer; " at Hallontide, an army 

 of mice so overrun the marshes near Southminster, that they ate up the 

 grass to the very roots. But at length a great number of strange painted 

 owls came and devoured all the mice. The like happened again in Essex 

 about sixty years after." 



ORDER II. — OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 



Birds of this order have the bill middle sized, robust, sharp on the edges; 

 the upper iTiandible more or less convex, and notched at the point; feet with 

 four toes, three before and one behind; wings of medium size, with the 

 quill feathers terminating in a point. 



THE HORN BILL. 1 



The rhinoceros hornbill, or rhinoceros bird, is nearly as large as the 

 turkey ; the bill is ten inches long, and two and a half thick at the base. 

 On the ijpper part is an appendage as large as the bill itself, and turning 

 upwards, which measures eight inches in height. There is nothing else 

 remarkable in the bird, as the general color of the plumage is black. This 

 bird is found in most parts of the East Indies, where (like the raven) it feeds 



' Buceros rhinoceros, Lin. The genus Baceros has the hill convex, curved, sharp- 

 edged, of large dimensions, serrated at the margin, with a horny protuberance near the hase 

 of the upper mandible rising into a crest; nostrils behind the base of the bill covered by a 

 membrane; legs short, muscular; lateral toes equal, the external one united to the second 

 joint ; the first three wing feathers graduated, the fourth or fifth longest. 



