HORN-BILL. 307 



3.— HELMET HORN-BILL. 



Buceros galeatus, Ind. Orn. i. 142. Id. Sup. p. xxiii. Gm. Lin. i. 360. 



Calao a Casque rond, Buf. vii. 159. PI. enl. 933. 



Galeated Horn-bill, Shaw's Zool. viii. p. 24. 



Helmet Horn-bill, Gen. Syn. i. 344. Id. Sup. ii. 370. Edw. pi. 281. f. C. 



THE bill of this bird is nearly strait, or very little curved, and 

 eight inches in length, as far as the real mandibles reach ; of a conical 

 shape ; the upper one is continued above into a gibbosity, almost 

 square, making the bill at this part four inches and a half deep ; this 

 gibbosity is rounded behind, almost flat in front, and is there an inch 

 thick, as may be seen through the general horny red covering, which 

 envelopes the sides of the upper mandible, as far as the bony front, 

 which to the end of the bill is yellowish white ; the nostrils appear 

 just above the eyes, in a hollow, behind the base of the gibbous helmet; 

 and between this and the eye springs a wrinkle ridge, passing quite 

 across transversely to the front; the edges of both mandibles are 

 smooth. — As to the plumage of this bird, the head, breast, and wings 

 are black ; belly, thighs, and vent white ; the tail long, cuneiform, 

 white, with a broad bar of black near the end of each feather ; the 

 total length from the point of the bill to the end of the tail is four 

 feet, of which the tail is two, for the two middle feathers are two feet 

 long, the two next on each side twenty-one inches, the three ouler 

 twelve inches ; the wings reach about three inches on the tail ; the 

 legs stout, scaly, and black. 



Inhabits the East Indies. If I conjecture right, this bird 

 may have some powerful enemy to oppose ; as the bony, thick front 

 seems capable of great resistance, and in a specimen in my possession 

 seems to have suffered thereby, for the horny part is beaten off in 

 several places. * I have seen this bony front made into the lid of a 



* M. Levaillant is of opinion, that this bird should not be ranked with the Horn-billi, 

 from the bill being of so great solidity, not seen in others of the Genus, and rather thinks it 

 to belong to some water bird.'— Levail. Am. fy Ind. i. p. 59. 



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