3-011-952 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Hornbills, in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, Regent's Park, 1864. 'We lately mentioned that Mr. Thompson, the head keeper of the Zoological Society's Gardens in Regent's Park, had returned from Calcutta, bringing with him a large number of rare and valuable animals, presented to the society by the Baboo Rajenda Mullick, Mr. A. Grote, and Mr. W. Dunn...The large hornbills...are magnificent birds, and well worthy of observation. We have engraved a drawing which represents their general appearance. Of this bird, sometimes vulgarly called the horned Indian raven, though it belongs to a different class, the most remarkable species are distinguished by the shape of their horny excrescence, or casque, upon the upper mandible of the bill. In the Buceros rhinoceros it projects like the so-called "horn" of the beast of that name; in the Buceros cavatus it is of a concave shape. They are gregarious birds, and omnivorous in their diet. The colour is partly black and partly a dingy white. The bill is usually about ten inches long'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.