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DESCRIPTION OF THE BUCEROS 



This species is gregarious, like most others of the Genus; of staid and 

 serious manners and motions ; full of confidence and quietness ; and seem- 

 ing to prefer the few open and cultivated spots in the wilds it inhabits — 

 which spots are usually limited to the banks of rivers. There, perched on 

 the top of some huge, fantastic Bar tree, you shall see this large, grotesque, 

 and solemn bird sit motionless for hours. Math his neck concealed between 

 the high shoulders of his wings, and his body sunk upon his tarsi ; the 

 very type and emblem of the orient world ! 



Occasionally, he will take a short flight accompanied by one or two 

 companions (for he is a social bird,) to some other high tree ; never, so far 

 as I have observed, alighting on the ground, nor on a low tree. Twenty or 

 thirty birds are commonly found in the same immediate vicinity — six or 

 eight, upon the same tree, if it be large. And they will continue perched 

 for hours with the immoveable gravity of judges, now and then exchang- 

 ing a few syllables in the most subdued tone of a voice as uncouth as their 

 forms and manners. 



This subdued articulation is not louder than, and is similar in character 

 with, the low croaking of a bull frog. But, if the remorseless gunner in- 

 trude upon this solemn congress and bringdown, v»dthout mortally wound- 

 ing one of its members, the clamours of the captive bird will utterly amaze 

 him. I cannot liken this vehement vociferation to any thing but the bray- 

 ing of a jackass :— its power is extraordinary, and is the consequence of an 

 unusually osseous structure of the rings of the tracheea and of the larynx. 

 The Homrai flies with his neck stretched out, his legs retracted, and his tail 

 levelled and somewhat expanded. His flight is straight and laborious, with 

 heavy uniform frequent motion of his wings, which, though ample in size, 

 have not apparently a corresponding degree of energy:- — presume so, from 

 the short, straight, and laborious flight of the Homrai ; and Dr. Bramley 

 infers the same thing from the lax concatenation of the vertebrae of his back. 



