hornbill
(ˈhɔːnbɪl)
[f. horn n. + bill n.2]
1. A bird of the family Bucerotidæ, so called from the horn-like excrescence surmounting the bill.
Formerly called horned crow, horned pie.
| 1773 Pennant Genera of Birds p. xxix. and 8. 1781 Latham Gen. Synops. Birds I. 341. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) II. 89 Of the Hornbills in general..[Their bills] have frequently a protuberance, somewhat resembling another bill, on the upper mandible. 1854 Owen Skel. & Teeth in Circ. Sc., Organ. Nat. I. 167 The enormous beak of the hornbill..forms one enormous air-cell. 1893 Newton Dict. Birds 435 The Hornbills, of which more than 60 species have been described, form a very natural and in some respects an isolated group. |
2. Comb. hornbill cuckoo, the keel-billed cuckoo, Crotophaga, of N. America.