OF BUCEROS. 181 



transverse scales: the toes disposed three before and one behind, of 

 moderate length, dilated, flat, strong, scaly, very imperfectly separated ; 

 the anterior outer toe being imited to the central one, beyond the second 

 joint, and the anterior inner toe, beyond the first joint. This imperfect 

 Assure of the toes, joined to their extreme flatness beneath, gives to the 

 soles of the feet a singular character : and the legs are so placed in the 

 body, that the bird, in perching, grasps somewhat obliquely : claiva, arch- 

 ed, compressed, truncated. 



The tail is greatly elongated ; cunei form ; erigible ; consisting of 

 ten unequal feathers. The ivings are high-shouldered; powerful; of 

 moderate length ; inclining to round ; the first and second quills not being 

 so long as those that follow, and these again, not much longer than the 

 succeeding ones. The naked skin round the eyes and base of the bill is of 

 velvety softness, and runs connectedly from the eyes to the edges of the bill 

 next the throat; and where it terminates below, or at the junction of the 

 lower mandible and of the throat, is a large angular space void of horn, 

 from the edges of which depends a bag, as large as a domestic fowl's egg, 

 of smooth naked skin. This bag the bird fills and empties at will ; but 

 never changes its colour, as the Abyssinian Hornbill (which is also pro- 

 vided with a similar appendage) is said to do. 



The feathers of the head, neck, and body beneath, are of a remarkable 

 texture and substance. These plumes (if plumes they can be called) are 

 somewhat elongated, and have long discomposed webs, and both shafts 

 and webs are of a wiry or hairy substance. Those of the head and neck, 

 which are rather longer than the rest, form a sort of pendant ruff, that is 

 capable of partial erection at the bird's pleasure. This ruff has the ad- 

 vantageous effect of taking off" from the monstrous disproportion between 



Y 2 the 



