Hornbill

Hornbill, the name of a genus (Buceros) and of a family (Bucerotidæ) of birds now placed in the division of Fissirostral Picarian birds. The species are numerous, and are found in Africa, India, and throughout the Malayan region as far as New Guinea. They are mostly large birds, the largest being more than 4 feet long, the smallest rather smaller than a magpie. They are bulky birds of heavy, noisy flight; their large bills are surmounted by bony crests or helmets of varied shape and sometimes of great size, but rendered light by the presence of numerous air-cells. Their food is principally fruits, but in certain circumstances they become to a great extent omnivorous. The most curious fact regarding these birds is that during the breeding season the male imprisons the female in the nest in a hollow tree, plastering up the entrance, and leaving only a small slit through which he supplies her and her offspring with food until the young ones are nearly full grown. In captivity the male bird has been observed to disgorging at intervals the lining of his gizzard in the form of a bag, and it is supposed that the food supplied to the female during her term of captivity in the breeding season is enclosed in this structure.