. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. 8G8 THE RHINOCEROS HORNBILL. On cutting asunder the beak and helmet of a Hornbill, we shall find that the outer shell of horny substance is very thin indeed, scarcely thicker than the paper on which this description is printed, and that the whole interior is composed of numerous honey-combed cells, with very thin walls and very wide spaces, the walls of the cells being so arranged as to give very great strength when the bill is used for biting, and with a very slight expenditure of mater
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. 8G8 THE RHINOCEROS HORNBILL. On cutting asunder the beak and helmet of a Hornbill, we shall find that the outer shell of horny substance is very thin indeed, scarcely thicker than the paper on which this description is printed, and that the whole interior is composed of numerous honey-combed cells, with very thin walls and very wide spaces, the walls of the cells being so arranged as to give very great strength when the bill is used for biting, and with a very slight expenditure of material. The whole structure, indeed, reminds us greatly of that beautiful bony network which gives to the skull of the elephant its enormous size and lightness, and which is fully described in the volume on Mammalia, page 598. The general appearance of the dried head of a Hornbill, with its delicate cellular arrangements, and its thin, polished, bony shell, is not unlike the well-known shell of the paper nautilus, and crumbles in the grasp almost as easUy. The most common is the Rhinoceros Hornbill {Biiceros rhinoceros): one of the hand- somest is the White-crested Hornbill {Buceros aJbocristdius); other interesting species are the Crested Hornbill {Biiceros cristdtus), the Two-iiokned Hornbill {Biiceros bicornis), and the Woodpecker Hornbill {Buceros pica.).. TWO-HOENED HORNBILL.—iiuccro* tiiconils. Perhaps the greatest development of beak and helmet is found in the Rhinoceros Horn- bill, although there are many otliers which have these appendages o-f great size. As is the case with all the Hornbills, the beak varies greatly in proportion to the age of the individual, the helmet being almost imperceptible when it is first hatched, and the bill not very striking in its dimensions. But as the bird gains in strength, so does the beak gain in. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
