HOENBILLS. 303 



The voice of this and other Plantain-eaters is always of a loud character. It is quite 

 as shy as its comrades, concealing itself in the same effective manner, and displaying 

 more than ordinary precaution when in the vicinity of human habitations. The nest of 

 this bird is made in the hollow of some decaying tree. The general colour of this bird is 

 dark blue, marked with verditer green. The crest is almost black, the abdomen is 

 greenish, and the thighs chestnut. 



The remarkable bird known by the name of Hoatzin, or Ceested Toueaco, is the 

 sole example of the family or sub-family, as the case may be, to which it belongs. Its 

 exact place in- the catalogue of birds is rather unsettled, some authors considering it to 

 belong to the poultry, or the Gallinaceous birds, and others looking upon it as one of the 

 true Passerines. 



It is a very fine bird, being nearly as large as a peacock, and having somewhat of 

 the same gait and mode of carriage. The peculiar construction of the foot, the outer 

 toe of which cannot be turned backward, has induced zoologists of the present day to 

 separate it from the plantain-eaters, and to consider it as a unique representative of a 

 sub-family. 



This bird is a native of tropical America, being found in Guiana and the Brazils, 

 where it leads a gregarious life, assembling together in large flocks, on the banks of creeks 

 and rivers. Although so closely resembling the Gallinaceous birds in general appearance 

 and habits, its flesh is, fortunately for itself, quite uneatable, being impregnated with a 

 strong and peculiar odour that cleters any but a starving man from making a meal upon 

 it. Perhaps this odour may be caused by its food, which consists almost wholly of the 

 leaves of the arum. 



The nest of the Hoatzin is made in the lower part of a tree, and is composed exteriorly 

 of slender twigs, and interiorly of mosses and other soft substances. The eggs are about 

 three or four in number, and their colour is greyish white, besprinkled with red spots. 

 The head of this species is adorned with a tuft of elongated and narrow feathers. Its 

 colour is brown above, striped with white, and the breast and throat are light brown 

 washed with grey. The abdomen is deep chestnut, and the tail tipped with white. The 

 bill is short, thick, very convex, and bent downwards at the tip. 



Theee are many strange and wonderful forms among the feathered tribes ; but there 

 are, perhaps, none which more astonish the beholder who sees them for the first time, than 

 the group of birds known by the name of Hornbills. 



They are all distinguished by a very large beak, to which is added a singular helmet- 

 like appendage, equalling the beak itself in some species, while in others it is so small as 

 to attract but little notice. On account of the enormous size of the beak and the helmet, 

 which in some species recede to the crown of the head, the bird appears to be overweighted 

 by the mass of horny substance which it has to carry ; but on a closer investigation, the 

 whole structure is found to be singularly light, and yet very strong. 



On cutting asunder the beak and helmet of a Hornbill, we shall find that the outer 

 shell of horny substance is very thin indeed, scarcely thicker than the paper on which 

 this description is printed, and that the whole interior is composed of numerous honey- 

 combed cells, with very thin walls and very wide spaces, the walls of the cells being so 

 arranged as to give very great strength when the bill is used for biting, and with a very 

 slight expenditure of material. The whole structure, indeed, reminds us greatly of that 

 beautiful bony network which gives to the skull of the elephant its enormous size and 

 lightness, and which is fully described in the volume on Mammalia, page 733. The 

 general appearance of the dried head of a Hornbill, with its delicate cellular arrangements, 

 and its thin polished bony shell, is not unlike the weU-known shell of the paper nautilus, 

 and crumbles in the grasp almost as easily. 



Five species of Hornbills are shown in the engraving on page 504. The upper 

 figure is the common Ehinoccros Hornbill (Buceros Rhinoceros) ; the handsome, but 

 smaller, bird on its left is the White-crested Hornbill {Buceros alhocristdtus). Of the 

 two figures that occupy the middle of the drawing, the left bird represents the Crested 



