84 
A. COLOSSAL BILL. 
barbet, 
They are the " Nasones " of the 
Bird World. In some species the 
bill is upwards of two inches 
broad, and seven inches long; and the ^, 
wonder is, how so small a bird can manage ' 
comfortably with such a burden. The question 
of questions seems to be, What will he do with 
it ? You would naturally suppose that it was as trouble- 
some to its owner as was the colossal nose of the stranger 
whose moving story is told by Slawkenbergius. The 
medieval naturalists, who saw the bill only and not the bird, 
concluded that the latter belonged to the order of Waders, and 
lived upon fish; and travellers Avere soon found to support this 
erroneous conclusion by travellers' tales of the usual romantic 
character. But later research proved be3'ond doubt that he 
was an arboreal bird, and, like the parrot, the trogon, and the 
all belonging to the same group, a fruit-eater. This fact being 
