Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various birds of the family Bucerotidae of tropical Asia and Africa, having a very large bill often with an enlarged protuberance at the base.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A large non-passerine bird of the family Bucerotidæ: so called from the horny casque, in some cases of enormous size, which surmounts the bill.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any bird of the family
Bucerotidæ , of which about sixty species are known, belonging to numerous genera. They inhabit the tropical parts of Asia, Africa, and the East Indies, and are remarkable for having a more or less horn-like protuberance, which is usually large and hollow and is situated on the upper side of the beak. The size of the hornbill varies from that of a pigeon to that of a raven, or even larger. They feed chiefly upon fruit, but some species eat dead animals.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of various
birds of the familyBucerotidae , withbills resembling a cow'shorn . Many species have acasque above the bill, and manyimprison their young in atree .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun bird of tropical Africa and Asia having a very large bill surmounted by a bony protuberance; related to kingfishers
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In terms of casque morphology, the most strongly modified hornbill is the Helmeted hornbill Rhinoplax vigil, a territorial fig specialist of SE Asia.
Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006
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In terms of casque morphology, the most strongly modified hornbill is the Helmeted hornbill Rhinoplax vigil, a territorial fig specialist of SE Asia.
Bucorvids: post-Cretaceous maniraptorans on the savannah Darren Naish 2006
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There is an African bird called the hornbill, whose habits are in some respects a model.
Women and the Alphabet A Series of Essays Thomas Wentworth Higginson 1867
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The hornbill is a double-beaked bird that makes for a unique sight.
unknown title 2009
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[124] This bird, often called a "hornbill" by foreigners in the
Philippine Folk-Tales Fletcher Gardner
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He stated that the bird in the tree was called by the Feringhees a "hornbill," but it was also known to some as the "rhinoceros bird."
The Cliff Climbers A Sequel to "The Plant Hunters" Mayne Reid 1850
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Diptendu Dutta/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images A Nishi tribesman wore a traditional hornbill cap as he queued to vote at a polling station in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, Oct.13, 2009.
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Joan rode on among the avenues of young cocoanut-palms, saw a hornbill, followed it in its erratic flights to the high forest on the edge of the plantation, heard the cooing of wild pigeons and located them in the deeper woods, followed the fresh trail of a wild pig for a distance, circled back, and took the narrow path for the bungalow that ran through twenty acres of uncleared cane.
Chapter 22 2010
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European Pressphoto Agency The festival takes its name from the hornbill, a bird, a recurring theme in local folklore.
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African red-billed hornbill Tockus erythrorhyncus is recorded.
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