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HORNBILL

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 707 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HORNBILL , the See also:

English name See also:long generally given to all the birds of the See also:family Bucerotidae of See also:modern ornithologists, from the extraordinary See also:horn-like excrescence (apithema) See also:developed on the See also:bill of most of the See also:species, though to which of them it was first applied seems doubtful. Among classical authors See also:Pliny had heard of such animals, and mentions them (His'. Nat. See also:lib. x. cap. lxx,) under the name of Tragopan; but he deemed their existence fabulous, comparing them with Pegasi and Gryphones—in the words of See also:Holland, his translator (vol. i. p. 2g6)—" I thinke the same of the Tragopanades, which many men affirme to See also:bee greater than the 1Egle; having crooked See also:hornes like a See also:Ram on either See also:side of the See also:head, of the See also:colour of yron, and the head onely red." Yet this is but an exaggerated description of some of the species with which doubtless his informants had an imperfect acquaintance. See also:Medieval writers found Pliny's See also:bird to be no See also:fable, for snecimens of the See also:beak of one species or another seem occasionally to have been brought to See also:Europe, where they were preserved in the cabinets of the curious, and thus Aldrovandus was able to describe See also:pretty fairly and to figure (Ornithologia, lib. xii. cap. xx. tab. x. fig. 7) one of them under the name of " See also:Rhinoceros Avis," though the See also:rest of the bird was wholly unknown to him. When the exploration of the See also:East Indies had extended farther, more examples reached Europe, and the " Corms Indicus See also:cornutus" of Bontius became fully recognized by See also:Willughby and See also:Ray, under the See also:title of the " Horned See also:Indian See also:Raven or Topau called the Rhinocerot Bird." Since the See also:time of those excellent ornithologists our knowledge of the hornbills has been steadily increasing, but up to the third See also:quarter of the 1gth See also:century there was a See also:great lack of precise See also:information, and the publication of D. G. Elliot's " Monograph of the Bucerotidae," then supplied a great want. He divides the family into two sections, the Bucerotinae and the Bucorvinae. The former See also:group contains most of the species, which are divided into many genera. Of these, the most remark-able is Rhinoplax, which seems properly to contain but one species, the Buceros See also:vigil, B. sculatus or B. geleatus of authors, commonly known as the See also:helmet-hornbill, a native of See also:Sumatra and See also:Borneo.

This is easily distinguished by having the front of its nearly See also:

vertical and slightly See also:convex epithema composed of a solid See also:mass of horn 5 instead of a thin coating of the See also:light Apparently correlated with this structure is the curious thickening of the " prosencephalic median septum " of the cranium as also of that which divides the " prosencephalic " from the " mesencephalic chamber," noticed by See also:Sir R. See also:Owen (See also:Cat. Osteol. See. See also:Mus. See also:Roy. See also:Coll. Surg. See also:England, i. 287) ; while the solid horny mass is further strengthened by a backing of bony props, directed forwards and See also:meeting its See also:base at right angles. This last singular arrangement is not perceptible in the See also:skull of any other species examined by the See also:present writer. See also:Land cellular structure found in the others' So dense and hard is this portion of the " helmet " that See also:Chinese and See also:Malay artists carve figures on its See also:surface, or cut it transversely into plates, which from their agreeable colouring, See also:bright yellow with a See also:scarlet rim, are worn as brooches or other ornaments.

This bird, which is larger than a raven, is also remarkable for its long graduated tail, having the See also:

middle two feathers nearly twice the length of the rest. Nothing is known of its habits. Its head was figured by See also:George See also:Edwards in the 18th century, but little else had been seen of it until 1801, when See also:John Latham described the plumage from a specimen in the See also:British Museum, and the first figure of the whole bird, from an example in the Museum at See also:Calcutta, was published by See also:General See also:Hardwicke in 1823 (Trans. Linn. Society, xiv. pl. 23). Yet more than twenty years elapsed before See also:French naturalists became acquainted with it. In the Bucorvinae we have only the genus Bucorvus, or Bucorax as some See also:call it, confined to See also:Africa, and containing at Great Indian Hornbill (B. bicornis). (After T'ickell's See also:drawing in the Zoological Society's library.) least two and perhaps more species, distinguishable by their longer legs and shorter toes, the ground-hornbills of English writers, in contrast to the Bucerotinae which are chiefly arboreal in their habits, and when not flying move by See also:short leaps or hops, while the members of this group walk and run with facility. From the days of See also:James See also:Bruce at least there are few See also:African travellers who have not met with and in their narratives more or less fully described one or other of these birds, whose large See also:size and fearless habits render them conspicuous See also:objects. As a whole the hornbills, of which more than 5o species have been described, See also:form a very natural and in some respects an isolated group, placed by See also:Huxley among his Coccygomorphae. It has been suggested that they have some See also:affinity with the hoopoes (Upupidae), and this view is now generally accepted.

Their supposed See also:

alliance to the toucans (Rhamphastidae) rests only on the apparent similarity presented by the enormous beak, and is contradicted by important structural characters. In many of their habits, so far as these are known, all hornbills seem to be much alike, and though the modification in the form of the beak, and the presence or See also:absence of the extraordinaryexcrescence,' whence their name is derived, causes great diversity of aspect among them, the See also:possession of prominent eyelashes (not a See also:common feature in birds) produces a uniformity of expression which makes it impossible to See also:mistake any member of the family. Hornbills are social birds, keeping in companies, not to say flocks, and living chiefly on fruits and seeds; but the bigger species also See also:capture and devour a large number of See also:snakes, while the smaller are great destroyers of See also:insects. The older writers say that they eat carrion, but further See also:evidence to that effect is required before the statement can be believed. Almost every morsel of See also:food that is picked up is tossed into the See also:air, and then caught in the bill before it is swallowed. They breed in holes of trees, laying large See also:white eggs, and when the See also:hen begins to sit the See also:cock plasters up the entrance with mud or See also:clay, leaving only a small window through which she receives the food he brings her during her incarceration. This remarkable See also:habit, almost simultaneously noticed by Dr See also:Mason in See also:Burma, S. R. See also:Tickell in See also:India, and See also:Livingstone in Africa, and since confirmed by other observers, especially A. R. See also:Wallace ? in the Malay See also:Archipelago, has been connected by A. D.

See also:

Bartlett (Prot. Zool. Society, 1869, p. 142) with a peculiarity as remarkable, which he was the first to See also:notice. This is the fact that hornbills at intervals of time, whether periodical or irregular is not yet known, See also:cast the See also:epithelial layer of their gizzard, that layer being formed by a secretion derived from the glands of the proventriculus or some other upper See also:part of the alimentary See also:canal. The epithelium is ejected in the form of a See also:sack or bag, the mouth of which is closely folded, and is filled with the See also:fruit that the bird has been eating. The announcement of a circumstance so extraordinary naturally caused some hesitation in its See also:acceptance, but the essential truth of Bartlett's observations was abundantly confirmed by Sir W. H. See also:Flower and especially by Dr J. Murie. These castings form the hen bird's food during her confinement. (A.

End of Article: HORNBILL

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