320 HORN-BILL. 



bent, and compressed on the sides; both mandibles channelled within, 

 blunt at the tips, and white on the edges ; on the top of the upper is 

 a semicircular prominence, two inches and a half in diameter, and 

 fifteen lines broad at the base; this excrescence is of the same substance 

 as the bill, but so very thin, as to give way to the pressure of the 

 fingers ; the height of the bill and helmet is nearly three inches and 

 three quarters ; on each side of the upper mandible a reddish space ; 

 eye surrounded with a naked, violet-brown skin, extending on the 

 throat, and part of the neck before ; the plumage wholly black, 

 except the greater quills, which are white; the second quills, and 

 part of the wing coverts, deep tawny brown ; legs five inches and a 

 half long, thick, stout, and blackish. 



One in Mr. Bullock's Museum was three feet and a half long; on 

 the fore part of the eyelids several short, stiff", curved bristles, like 

 eye-lashes, the same beneath, but shorter, and none on the back part ; 

 the tail even, and the quills reach one-third on it; legs scaly black. 



In Mr. Brace's drawings, as well as in his description, the bird 

 appears to have a wattle under the throat, like the Turkey, changing 

 at times to a full red ; total length three feet ten inches ; in the other 

 sex the wattle is blue. The nest is made in large trees, and for the 

 most part said to be built near churches ; it is covered as in the 

 Magpie's, but four times as large as that of an Eagle, placing it firm 

 on the trunk, the entrance on the east side ; the young are numerous, 

 sometimes eighteen in number; is much inclined to run on the ground, 

 but will sometimes fly well, and to a great distance ; part of its food a 

 a great beetle, which is found in plenty in the Teff-fields of Abyssinia, 

 where the bird is sufficiently common. Is called in Amhara, Erkoom ; 

 in Tigre, Abba-gumba; and in Sennara, Tier el Naciba, or Bird of 

 Destiny. 



When full grown, it is the biggest of all this Genus, though not 

 so long as the Rhinoceros Species, on account of the length of the 

 tail of the last ; however, the bill is of an extraordinary size ; that 

 of the adult more than one foot. The helmet open before, and 



