132 CASSELLS BOOK OF BIRDS. 



decided preference for animal food, picking out all morsels of that description, and only resorting to 

 vegetable diet when all the other is exhausted. 



"There is yet another peculiarity of this bird," continues Mr. Broderip, "that cannot be passed 

 over in silence. When he settles himself to roost, he sits a short time with his tail retroverted, so as 

 to make an acute angle with the line of his back ; he then turns his bill over his right shoulder, 

 nestling it in the soft feathers of the back (on which last the under mandible rests), till the bill is so 

 entirely covered that no trace of it is visible. When disturbed, he does not drop his tail, but almost 

 immediately returns his bill to the comfortable nidus from which he had withdrawn it. At these times 

 the bird has the appearance of a ball of feathers." 



THE TUKANA. 



The TuKANA {Ramphastiis Temminckii) has the feathers in the fore part of the throat of a 

 bright yellow, edged with a paler shade. The hinder parts of the body are red, and the breast is 

 adorned by a red line. The beak is glossy black, with a broad light yellow streak towards its base ; 

 the eye is blueish, the bare eye-ring deep red, and the foot lead-grey. The length of this species is 

 eighteen inches and a half, and its breadth twenty-one inches. The wing measures seven inches, and 

 the tail six inches and a half. The Tukana is an inhabitant of the forests on the coast of Brazil. 



The HORN-BILLS PROPER {Bucerotes) are at once recognisable by the remarkable norn-like 

 protuberance that in many species rises at the base of the very long, thick, and more or less curved 

 beak. Their body is slender, the neck moderately long, and head comparatively small ; the tail, 

 composed of ten feathers, is of medium size, or very long ; the wings short, and very decidedly 

 rounded, the tarsus short and the toes slender. In many species the throat and region of the eye are 

 bare, and the eyelid furnished with well-developed eyelashes. 



These birds inhabit the Eastern Hemisphere, and are especially numerous in some parts of Asia 

 and Africa. Dense woods and forests are their favourite resorts, and where these are to be met with 

 they often live at an altitude of ten thousand feet above the level of the sea ; only a few of the 

 smaller species occasionally frequent shrubs or bushes. Lesson tells us that certain species devour 

 nutmegs, from which their flesh acquires a most appetising flavour. Some writers inform us that they 

 will consume carrion, and when in confinement have been known to swallow rats and mice whole, 

 after bruising their bodies with their powerful mandibles. The Hornbills associate in flocks, which 

 frequent woods and forests, and perch on the loftiest trees. We learn from the naturalist above 

 quoted that the noise produced by a party of these birds when passing through the air is very 

 alarming to those who are unaware that the strange sound that accompanies their movements is 

 produced by the clattering of their huge mandibles, and the utterance of a loud croak ; these 

 discordant sounds bearing no distant resemblance to one of those sudden and violent winds 

 which often come on unexpectedly in tropical climates. Their voice may be described as the 

 blast of a bugle, combined ^vith the sudden hiss of an exploding sky-rocket ; they seem to utter these 

 calls periodically, without any obvious reason, as if to relieve the monotony of their still and 

 melancholy lives. Major Denham tells us that an Abyssinian species lives upon insects, fish, and 

 snakes, and appears to display an especial instinct in finding the latter. The Hornbill discovers 

 their vicinity while they are yet underground, digs on the spot, destroys the nest, and feeds on the 

 venomous inhabitant and its eggs. " The first time I saw a Hornbill's nest," says Dr. Livingstone, 

 speaking of another species, " was at Kolsberg, when I had gone to a forest for some timber. Standing 

 by a tree, a native looked behind me, and exclaimed, ' There is the nest of a Korw^ !' I now saw a 

 slit only about half an inch wide, and three or four inches long, in a slight hollow of the tree. 



