370 Passeres. BIRDS. Bucerotida3. 
to Abyssinia, where Ihey are abundant ; at the Cape 
they are called Muys-voogel, or Mouse- birds, by the 
Dutch colonists, partly on account of their soft plum- 
age, and partly from their mouse-like movements in 
the bushes. Their food consists principally of fruits. 
The Cape or White-backed Coly measures rather 
more than six inches in length ; it has the head, crest, 
and throat ashy-gray, the forehead black, and the 
upper surface pearly-gray, with a white band running 
from the middle of the back to the rump, where it 
terminates in a small tuft of purple feathers ; the lower 
surface is red dish- white. The cry of this bird is 
described as resembling the syllables qui-wi, qui-wi, 
quiwiwi, strongly articulated. With its congeners 
it plunders the gardens at the Cape of Good Hope ; 
descending upon these in great flocks, it attacks the 
fruits, the buds of the trees, and even the young shoots 
of the herbaceous plants, often destroying almost every- 
thing ill the garden in a few minutes. 
THE HOATZIN [Opinihocomua crisiatus). — The true 
position of this curious bird must still be regarded 
as doubtful. Originally described as a pheasant by 
Linnajus, it has been shifted about by different authors 
between the Gallinaceous and Passerine orders — its 
singular structure presenting as it were a combination of 
the characters of both. It has a large convex bill, with 
the nostrils pierced in the middle of the upper man- 
dible. The mandibles are denticulated 'tiiithin the 
margins, and the head is furnished with a large erectile 
crest. In these and some other particulars the bird 
would seem to approach the Musophagidm, with which 
Mr. Gray and some other ornithologists place it; but, 
on the other hand, the- feet are very gallinaceous in 
their character, the tarsi being reticulated, and the toes 
alone scutellated above. The hinder toe, also, is not 
versatile as in the other members of the present family, 
but the anterior toes are entirely divided, and not fur- 
nished at the base with those small membranes which 
are generally found in gallinaceous bii'ds. 
Whatever may be its true systematic position, the 
Iloatzin is undoubtedly a very remarkable bird. It is 
nearly as large as a peacock, which it resembles in 
many of its movements. Its plumage is tawny-brown, 
with numerous white spots and streaks upon tlie wings 
and tail ; its breast is yellowish-white ; the naked skin 
about its face and throat is bluish ; and the elongated 
slender feathers which form the crest are white on one 
ride, and black on the other. It is an inhabitant of 
Ih-azil and Guiana, where it lives in small flocks on the 
borders of the creeks and rivers. Its food is said to 
consist exclusively of the leaves of a particular species 
of tree, the Arum arhorescens of Linnmus. The birds 
exhibit little fear of man ; and, as their flesh possesses 
such a disagreeable odour, compounded of musk and 
castoieum, as to be quite useless for food, they are 
probably very seldom disturbed. The flesh is used in 
Guiana as a bait in fishing. 
Family VI.— BllCEROTIDHll. 
The birds of this family, to which the name of 
llornhills is commonly aiiplied, are at once distinguish- 
able by the great size of their bills, which are often so 
enormous as to appear almost a deformity, whilst in 
many species the disproportion of this part to the rest 
of the body is increased by the presence of a singular 
helmet-like swelling at its base, The bill, with this 
appendage, looks a most ponderous and unwieldy 
burden for the slender neck of the bird, but the whole 
structure is usually composed of very slight materials — 
a thin outer case, supported by a multitude of inter- 
lacing walls, inclosing cavities filled with air ; and so 
tender is the helmet-like protuberance in some species, 
that, after the death of the bird, a pressure with the 
thumb and fipger is often sufficient to crush it in. 
The bill is long, curved, and pointed, and the 
margins of the upper mandible are often irregulaily 
toothed, as if small fragments had been broken out of 
them ; the nostrils are placed at the base of the upper 
mandible ; the anterior toes of the stout powerful feet 
are more or less united together, the outer one espe- 
cially being attached to its neighbour to such an extent 
as to lead, Cuvier to place the Hornbills with the 
Kingfishers and Bee-eaters in his group of syndactyle 
birds ; and the front of the tarsi and upper surface of 
the toes are scutellated. These birds have tolerably 
large wings, and appear to possess considerable power 
of flight. They are also furnished with a long and 
broad tall, which is sometimes rounded at the extre- 
mity, sometimes very long and graduated. 
The Hornbills are inhabitants of the warmer pails 
of the Old World, most of the species being found in 
the Eastern islands and in Africa. They are generally 
of large size. In a state of nature their food consists 
principally of fruits, but they are said by some writers 
to feast upon carrion when they meet with it, and 
specimens in confinement have been seen to capture 
rats and mice, which they swallowed whole, after 
crushing them a little between their enormous man- 
dibles. They will probably feed upon almost anything 
that comes in their way. Lesson says that the Eastern 
species are very fond of nutmegs, from which their 
flesh acquires a delicious flavour. They usually live 
in hocks in the forests, where they are fond of perching 
upon the higliest branches of the trees, and, like the 
birds of the following order, they nidificate in the holes 
of trees, which they enlarge to suit their convenience 
by the agency of their bills. During ilight the head is 
drawn back, and the movement of the wings is very 
rapid, producing a considerable rushing sound as the 
birds pass through the air. This is heightened by a 
constant clattering of the large mandibles, .and the 
occasional utterance of a loud croak. In fact, according 
to Lesson, the noise produced by a flock of Hornbills 
when passing along in the air is very alarming to those 
who are unaware of its origin ; for it has no distant 
resemblance to the sound of one of those sudden and 
violent winds which often come on so unexpectedly in 
tropical countries. 
THE KHINOCEROS HORNBILL {Buceros Rhinoceros) 
— Plate 12, fig. 42 — is one of the largest species of this 
family, measuring about three feet in length, with a bill 
of about ten inches long. Its plumage is black, with 
the lower part of the bell^', the legs, and the rump 
white; the tail, which is long, and broad at the extremity, 
is also white, with a broad black band crossing it beyond 
