Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/242

* HOBNBILL. 2U HORNBY. or typical horubilU, of which tlicre arc iiiniiy gcncrii ami s|)i'oii's scaltorej ovtT Northwestern Africa, Jiidia, and the Oriental rej;iiin. All are rather lar;^e birds, the bij;f;esl live I'lrt in len^'tii from the tip of the beak tu the end of the tail; have lonj?, full tails, and strong feet, titled for arboreal habits. Their colors are mainly black and while; the fjreat bill.s are yellow, often strongly marked with red and black. They arc omnivorous, and in captivity show an ostrich- like voracity, swallowing anything oll'ered, bones and all. The fowl is always caught in the tip of the bill, then tossed into the air and recauglit. In nature they feed largely upon llower.s and fruit, cut from their fastenings by the saw-edged beak. Their flight is slow and heavy, but it may be long sustained. It is said to bo verj' noisy, the sound of the wings of a large hornbill being audililc for a mile, and when two or three are Hying together the noise is said to resemble a steam-engine. BuKEi)i.(i Habits. Some, if not all of the spe- cies, have the rcmarkalile habit of imprisoning the female during incubation. This is done by stopping up the entrance to tlie nest, which is in a hollow tree, with mud or excrement. Ther<^ .seems to be some doubt whether it is done frvm the outside by the male, using nnid. or from tlie inside by the female, using her own excrement. Perhaps the method dilfers in dilferent species. In any case, a small opening is left through which the female can extend her bill and secure the food which the male brings. Such nests are an excellent protection against enemies, and are said to be used repeatedly. The yoinig are born naked. This remarkable method of nidilication is connected with a strange feature of bird economy first noticed and studi<'d by Bartlett, who shows (Procccdiiifix Zoolotiicnl S<<)cir1y of London. 1869) that hornbills, at intervals, cast the epitlielial layer of their gizzards — a layer formed by the secretions of e(>rtain glands. This is ejected en- tire in the form of a bag, the mouth of which is closely folded, and which is filled with the fruit the bird has been eating. Whether these castings form a nutritious and partly digested supply of food for the sitting female is not known. Con- sult Newton, Dictionary of fiirila, London, ISOG. SpEfiE.s. The bird ordinarily presented as 'the' hornbill is /iiiccros rhinocrrns, from the East Indies, which was known and quaintly de- scrii)ed. from preserved heads alone, by Pliny and the naturalists of the Jliddle Ages. A closely allied species of .Java {liuceros si/lienlris) is shown on the accompanying plate. Another style of casrpie, the flat table, is shown in Figure 1 of the plate ( ////rfroroivrr planicornis, of the Phil- ippines), which illustrates almost equally well the 'homurai' of India (Dichoccros bicornis). who.se plate-easqne is l)ent into a trough, and terminates in two horns in front. This familiar species is found eastward to Sumatra, where also, among other kinds, lives that solid-casqued one ,(Rhinoplnx piilrnUis) . out of whose 'helmet' ivory-like ornaments are carved. This seems to he a remarkable species in several ways. An- other curious form of nenk is that of the Papuan Phylidorrrnii plirntiiii. in which the top of the bill has numerous curving transver.se folds. Promi- nent among African genera are the trumpeter hornbills, one species of which is the 'cre.sted' {Bi/caiiislcs eris/o/us). Here the beak is com- paratively short. In some genera the bill ap- juoaches the shape of a toucans, and has little or no cas<iue. A history of the family, with col- ored plates, by D. Ci. Klliot. entitled Munoijraph of the liuccrolidfr, was published in London in 1882. An exwilent popular account is given in the liuijal y<il)iial Uislory (London, 18".I5). See Plate of Iloli.NlilLLS AND TOLCAN.S. HORNBILL CUCKOO. A channelbill (q.v.). HORNBLENDE i/i..ni -| hicndc, tier, likndc, from bicndcn, to ulind). A greenisliblack or black variety of amphibole that crystallizes in the monodinic sy.stem. and is a ferrous magne- sium-caleiumaluminum silicate. 11 is found both in crystals and granular masses. Ilcjrn blende is a common constituent of various igne- ous rocks, such as granite, syenite, diorile, and those of more basio composition. Hornblende schist and hornblende slate are varieties of rocks that contain hornblende with more or less feldspar, quartz, or mica. The black crj'stallized varieties of hornblende are sometimes called schorl, and may be cut into ornaments. HORN^BLENDITE. An igneous rock of granitic Icxloic viiy largely composed of horn- lilcnde. ]|onihlen<lite occurs in the so-called Cortland series of erui)tivcs in the Highlands of the Hudsoji River, near Peekskill. X. V. HORNBLOWER, or Horn-Worm. A local name in the .'sduthcrn United States for the tobateo-worm (I'roloparce Carolina). See To- bacco Pests. HORNBOOK. The primer for learning the elements of reading, used in England before the days of printing, and connnon down to the time of George II. It consisted of a single leaf, con- taining on one side the alphabet large and small, in l)lack letter or in Roman, often followed by a number of monosyllables. Then came a form of exorcism and the Lord's Prayer, and the Roman niimerals. The leaf was usually set in a frame of wood, with a slice of transparent horn in front : hence the name. There was a handh> usually with a hole for a string, whereby the apparatus was slung to the girdle of the scholar, .'sometimes the leaf was simply pasteil against a slice of horn. .-Vt first the leaf was of vellum, with the characters in writing; later, of pa|)er, and printed. The hornliook was prefaced and ornamented with figures of the cross, and hence came to be often called Christeross-row, or Crisscross-row. Common as hornbooks at one time were, copies of them are now exceedingly rare. Consult Tues, History of the Hornbook, with illustrations and facsimiles (London. 1897). HORN'BY, Sir Geoffrey Thomas Pmpps (1825-95). An English admiral, son rjf Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby (1785-1807), born at Win- wick. Lancashire. He entered the navy when he was twelve; was present at the bombardment of Acre; served tinder Wyvill hunting slavers (1844- 40) and under his father in the Pacific ( 1840.50) ; and was sent to Hong Kong (1858) and took the Tribune to Vancouver's Island, then dis])uted prop- erty, and to all appearances the probable source of open war. He became vice-admiral and Lord of Admiralty in 1875. and two years afterwards was put in command of operations in the Mediter- ranean. In February. 1878. he 'proceeded to Constantinople.' in spite of the protest- of the Turkish Government, and prepared to meet any