304 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
as rasping and distressing as is that of the parrot, which it somewhat resembles,, 
though when calling the notes are toucano , toucano , from the sound of which the 
name has been given. They possess an omnivorous appetite, feeding without 
special preference off fruits, grain, white ants or any kind of meat. It com¬ 
mits great havoc among fruit gardens, but partially compensates for such 
depredations by the great destruction it works among ants, the largest hills of 
which it breaks down and devours the greater part of the inhabitants. In cap¬ 
tivity it will kill and eat mice, rats and birds, and an instance is on record where 
one seized upon a soldier’s car¬ 
touche box and devoured all the 
cartridges, but with fatal result. 
When sleeping, the toucan shifts 
his head so as to lay the monstrous 
bill squarely upon the back, and 
then covers it entirely by tilting- 
the tail up over it, the vertebrae of 
the tail being articulated specially 
so as to permit of this singular 
motion. When excited, or even hop¬ 
ping from branch to branch, the tail 
is kept tipping as though worked 
on hinges, which adds a weird effect 
to the otherwise curious creature. 
The Hornbills differ from the 
toucans in having a double bill, 
the purpose of which has not yet 
been determined. D. G. Elliott, in 
an excellent monograph on these 
strange birds, says : “As they exist 
at the present day, they exhibit to 
us probably but a remnant of the 
great family which once dwelt amid 
the forests of that mighty Eastern 
Continent, of which a large portion 
is now beneath the waters.” Mr. 
Elliott has succeeded in collecting 
sixty species, which he found dis¬ 
tributed over Africa, India and the Austria-Malayan region, 
where it is sometimes called rhinoceros bird. 
The hornbill varies in size, according to species, from that of a robin to a 
crow, the larger species being somewhat more plentiful. They are frugivorous, 
except that during the nesting period the female feeds principally on insects. 
Remarkable as is the appearance of this bird, its habits are no less curious, 
and particularly in the manner of rearing the young, in which it differs very 
much from all other birds. The nest is built in the hollow of a tree, with no- 
more care than the mere scooping out of a convenient receptacle some twelve 
inches deep, no lining of any kind being used. The female deposits but a 
single egg and then begins with great earnestness the process of incubation, 
but with this beginning a strange thing occurs. Instead of following the cus- 
GREAT BLACK COCKATOO. 
