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NATURAL HISTORY 
MALABAR IIORNB1LL. 
This bird has not only been allotted a large 
beak, but another, or something like, above 
it. The bill, with its super-eminent appen- 
dage, forms a height of four inches ; the true 
bill terminates in a blunt point, and is made 
of a strong horny substance ; the false bill, 
(if we may call it a bill,) is light, and of a 
substance like the crab’s shell. The peculiar 
uses of this protuberance arc as yet unknown, 
unless, as some writers have supposed, it is 
employed in bruising and detaching the bark 
of trees, f&r the purpose of enabling the bird 
to feed on the insects which are concealed 
beneath. This species inhabit the forests 
of India, and of several of the large islands 
of the Indian seas, soaring to the loftiest 
trees, and forming their nests in the decayed 
nnd worm-eaten trunks of the same. 
