﻿CONCLUDING EEMAEKS. 



xliii 



their habits, we are led to consider that the Hornbills are Fissirostral birds, though of a 

 very abnormal form. Their very short legs and united toes, with a broad flat sole, are 

 exactly similar to those of the Kingfishers. They have powerful wings ; but their heavy 

 bodies oblige them to use much exertion in flight, which is therefore not very rapid, though 

 often extended to considerable distances. They are (in the Indian Archipelago at least) 

 entirely frugivorous ; and it is curious to observe how their structure modifies their mode of 

 feeding. They are far too heavy to dart after the fruit, in the manner of the Trogons ; they 

 cannot even fly quickly from branch to branch, picking a fruit here and there ; neither have 

 they strength or agility enough to venture on the more slender branches, with the Pigeons 

 and Barbets ; but they alight heavily on a branch of considerable thickness, and then, looking 

 cautiously round them, pick off any fruits that may be within their reach, and jerk them 

 down their throats by a motion similar to that used by the Toucans, and which has been 

 erroneously described as throwing the fruit up in the air before swallowing it. When they 

 have gathered all within their reach they move sideways along the branch by short jumps, 

 or, rather, a kind of shuffle (and the smaller species even hop across to other branches), when 

 they again gather what is within their reach. When in this way they have progressed as 

 far as the bough will safely carry them, they take a flight to another part of the tree, where 

 they pursue the same course. It thus happens that they soon exhaust all the fruit within 

 their reach, and long after they have left a tree the Barbets and Eurylaimi find abundance 

 of food on the slender branches and extreme twigs. We see therefore that their very short 

 legs and syndactyle feet remove them completely from the vicinity of the Toucans, in which 

 the legs are actively employed in moving about after their food. Their wings, too, are as 

 powerful as those of the Toucans are weak ; and it is only the great weight of their bodies 

 that prevents them from being capable of rapid and extensive flight. As it is, their strength 

 of wing is shown, too, by the great force with which they beat the air, producing a sound, 

 in the larger species, which can be distinctly heard a mile off, and is even louder than that 

 made by the flight of the great Muscovy Duck. They are still further removed from the 

 Crows, with which they have also been very generally associated solely because they are 

 Conirostres, or conic-beaked ! — another instance of the extremely erroneous results which are 

 arrived at by a dependence on a single character, and especially on one which so little 

 influences the habits of a bird as the external form of its bill. 



"The preceding deductions from the habits of these birds had been made before I became 

 aware that Mr. Eyton had arrived at similar results from anatomical considerations alone ; 

 and I had great pleasure in finding that there was such solid support for the opinion which 

 I had formed entirely from my own observations. The only question that remains then is, 

 To what family of the Fissirostres do they most nearly approach ? A careful consideration 

 leads us to fix upon the Kingfishers. They are among the largest birds in the group ; they 

 have the largest bills ; and in the structure of the feet the two arc almost identical. 



"The Hombills of Africa are said to feed principally on reptiles, as do the Kinghunters 

 (Bacelo) of Australia. We look upon Hornbills therefore as one of the abnormal develop- 

 ments of Fissirostral birds, of which they are the largest, the least elegant, and the least 



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