OALEATED HORNBILL. ^5 



Edwards observes that this beak seems to imply 

 a bird of a different genus from that of the Horn- 

 bills; an observation so much the more important, 

 since Monsr. Levaillant, whose extensive know- 

 ledge of the feathered tribe so justly entitles his 

 opinion to attention, has no hesitation in pro- 

 nouncing that this bill must belong to a bird 

 widely removed from the Hornbiil tribe; and he 

 even ventures to affirm that it must belong to the 

 class of aquatic birds. This he considers as suffi- 

 ciently proved from the nature of the plumes which 

 sometimes adhere to the specimens: these, he says, 

 have smooth and close-set barbs like those of the 

 Anseres. Monsr. Levaillant proceeds still farther, 

 and infers, from the extreme solidity and heaviness 

 of the skull, that the bird is of the number of those 

 which have not the power of flight, unless it should 

 have wings of a very extraordinary amplitude. Un- 

 fortunately however for the above plausible conjec- 

 tures of Monsr. Levaillant, and as a proof how 

 cautious a naturalist should be in indulging specu- 

 lations of this nature, the bird itself has been lately 

 introduced into the British Museum, and is a ge- 

 nuine Buceros, agreeing in point of habit and pro- 

 portions with the rest of the tribe. Its total length 

 is four feet, of which the tail measures two: the 

 head, breast, back, and wings are black; the abdo- 

 men, thighs, vent-feathers, and tail white, but the 

 latter is marked near the tip by a broad black bar, 

 and is pretty strongly cuneiform, the two middle 

 feathers measuring twenty-four inches, the two 

 next twenty-one inches, and the three exterior 



