nORNBILLS. 
189 
beinj^ generally fiiriiisliecl Avitli a protuberance or 
knob at its base, of various shapes. In some of the 
species this singular appendage to the upper mandible 
is almost as large as the bill itself. Its use has not 
been ascertained. The whole of the bill, large and 
formidable as it appears, is weak and brittle, being 
eellular and light in substance. The tomia are 
naturally jagged, and they are often chipped into 
notches in the using. Their food consists of small 
animals, reptiles, and vegetables ; sometimes carrion. 
The prey is swallowed whole ; but previous to its 
transmission to the stomach, it is ground or crushed 
between the jagged tomia. They are said to eat 
voraciously, and to cast up their food into the air, 
catching it in its descent. Tliey are omnivorous 
birds, and resemble in some respects the crows ; but 
they are not endowed with the faculty of either 
perching or walking as those birds, and their feet are 
very different. The legs of the Hornbill are short, 
the tarsus being no longer than the middle toe. All 
the fore-toes are united at the base, and the outer is 
joined to the middle toe as far as the first joint. The 
hinder toe is the shortest, and the lateral ones unequal 
in size : claws short and thick. The whole limb is 
robust and muscular. It is neither a perching foot 
nor a walking foot, but simply a foot by means of 
which the bird can stand firmly, either on the ground 
or a branch. It is a gressorial foot, as it is technically 
called, and of the same nature as that of the King- 
fisher, Bee-eater, and Tody. In these latter birds, 
whose feet are very small and weak, the deficiency or 
inferiority of form in the foot is counterbalanced by 
