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ANATOMY OF BIRDS
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Birds and Birding's Guide to:Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDSTHE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIESTHE HORNBILLSNaked-throated HornbillsIn the forms thus far mentioned the chin and throat are feathered, but we now come to a group of five genera in which these parts are naked. Of these two are confined to the Philippine Islands, — Gym-nolcEtnus, with a single species having a large, swollen, though somewhat compressed casque, and Penelopides, with six species ranging in length from nineteen to twenty-four inches and having a compressed casque of moderate size, and the basal half of both mandibles covered with a grooved plate. Another genus, Rhytidoceros, of five Indian and Oriental species, is distinguished by having a small, low, rounded casque which is apparently composed of imbricated plates, and there are somewhat similar plates on the base of the bill. One of the best-known species is the Malayan Wreathed Hornbill (R. undulatus), a bird forty-five inches in length, with the plumage mainly black, glossed with dark green and purple, except on the forehead, middle of the crown and nape, which are deep chestnut, and the sides of the head and crown, as well as much of the front of the neck, which are buffy white; the tail is entirely white. The female is black throughout with the exception of the white tail; the length is only about thirty-eight inches. They are powerful, steady-flying birds of the forests, feeding almost entirely on fruit and going about in considerable flocks. Blyth's Wreathed Hornbill (R. subruficollis) is similar but smaller, the male being only thirty-four inches long. previous bird species next bird species
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