234 
Birds of Celebes: Cuculidae. 
Australia, as is shown by von Rosenberg’s statement that he once came into 
possession of an egg now in the Leyden Museum, which fell from the oviduct of 
a specimen killed by one of his hunters (13^^^), and a native told Meyer that 
he had once taken a young Scythrops, together with a young Crow out of a 
■Crow’s nest. The bird is often to be seen along with Crows (14). 
The plumage of the species in all localities appears to be very similar and 
stable; in dimensions of wing, bill and tail, however, it is an unusually variable 
bird. Probably, as Prof W. Blasius remarks, the bill in the male is larger 
than in the female. 
In Celebes it flies in large flocks, and feeds on fruits, such as the waringui 
(14). Gould mentions large insects as its food. Latham says that “in the 
crop and gizzard the seeds of the red gum and peppermint trees have been 
found . . . exuviae of beetles also”. 
It is probably parasitical, but positive evidence on this point is still wanting. 
In Gould’s Handbook an amusing account of the behaviour of a young Scythrops 
is given. Immediately it was put into the aviary it showed signs of hunger by 
opening its mouth, and had its wants promptly and carefully attended to by a 
Laughing Jackass (Dacelo giyas). 
ORDER BUCEROTES. 
The order contains the single family of the Hornbills, “a very natural and 
in some respects an isolated group, placed by Prof. Huxley among his Coccy- 
gomorphae’’^ (Newton), furnished with a bill of large or very large size, supported 
internally by a bony cellular structure, usually furnished at the base with a 
peculiarly shaped casque, and having a normal foot — three toes in front and 
the hallux behind. In size they vary from that of a domestic Pigeon to that 
of a Turkey; the plumage is usually of a pie-bald character, the tints being 
abruptly located, and the colours displayed are few, chiefly black, white, and 
various browns, while blue and red (except on the bare parts of the skin) are 
absent; in this they differ from the Toucans. The upper eyelid is provided 
with a row of stifl" lashes; the wing is of moderate length, 11 primaries, the 
outermost one small and often curiously attenuated, the secondaries long; tail 
long, consisting of 10 feathers. Food: fruit and seeds, “the bigger species also 
capture and devour a large number of snakes, while the smaller are great 
destroyers of insects . . . They breed in holes of trees, laying large white eggs, 
and when the hen begins to sit the cock plasters up the entrance^) with mud 
1) Sometimes before ever the eggs are laid. 
