HOACTZIN, or Hoatzin, a bird of tropical South America, thought by Buffon to be that indicated by Hernandez or Fernandez under these names, the Opisthocomus hoazin or 0. cristatus of modern ornithologists—a very curious and remarkable form, which has long exercised the ingenuity of classifiers. Placed by Buffon among his “Hoccos" (Curassows), and then by P. L. S. Müller and Gmelin in the Linnaean genus Phasianus, some of its many peculiarities were recognized by liliger in 1811 as sufficient to establish it as a distinct genus, Opisthocomus; but various positions were assigned to it by subsequent systematic authors, whose views, not being based on any infor-pιation respecting its internal structure, do not here require particular attention. L’Herminier was the first to give any account of its anatomy (Comptes Rendus, 1837, v. p. 433), and from his time our knowledge of it has been successively increased by Johannes Müller (Ber. Akad. Wissensch. Berlin, 1841, p. 177), Deville (Rev. et Mag. de Zoologie, 1852, p. 217),Gervais (Castelnau, Exped. Amérique du Sud, Zoologie, Anatomie, ∙ρ. 66), Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool. Society, 1868, p. 304), Mr Perrin (Trans, Zool. Society, iχ. p. 353), and Garrod (Proc, Zool. Society, 1879, p. 109). After a minute description of the skeleton of Opisthocomus, with the especial object of determining its affinities, Prof. Huxley declared that it “resembles the ordinary Gallinaceous birds and Pigeons more than it does any others, and that when it diverges from them it is either sui generis or approaches the MusophagidaeT He accordingly regarded it as the type and sole member of a group, named by him Heteromorphae, which sprang from the great Carinate stem later than the Tinamomorphoe, Turnicomorphoe, or Chara- driomorphoe, but ...before the Peristeromorpha>, Ρteroclo- morphoe, or Alectoromorphoe. This conclusion is substantially the same as that at which Garrod subsequently arrived after closely examining and dissecting specimens preserved in spirit; but the latter has gone further and endeavoured to trace more particularly the descent of this peculiar form and some others, remarking that the ancestor of Opisthocomus must have left the parent stem very shortly before the true Gallinoe first appeared, and at about the same time as the independent pedigree of the Cuculidae and Muso- phagidae commenced—these two groups being, he believed, very closely related, and Opisthocomus serving to fill the gap between them.
It would be impossible here to state at length the facts on which these views are grounded, and equally impossible to give more than a very few details of the anatomy of this singular form. The first thing that strikes the spectator of its skeleton is the extraordinary structure of the sternal apparatus, which is wholly unlike that of any other bird known. The keel is only developed on the posterior part of the sternum—the fore part being, as it were, cut away, while the short furcula at its symphysis meets the manubrium, with which it is firmly consolidated by means of a prolonged and straight hypocleidium, and anteriorly ossifies with the coracoids. This unique arrangement seems to be correlated with the enormously capacious crop, which rests upon the furcula and fore part of the sternum, and is also received in a cavity formed on the surface of each of the great pectoral muscles. Furthermore this crop is extremely muscular, so as more to resemble a gizzard, and consists of two portions divided by a partial constriction, after a fashion of which no other example is known among birds.
The Hoactzin appears to be about the size of a small Pheasant, but is really a much smaller bird. The beak is strong, curiously denticulated along the margin of the maxilla near the base, and is beset by diverging bristles. The eyes, placed in the middle of a patch of bare skin, are furnished with bristly lashes, resembling those of Hornbills and some few other birds. The head bears a long pendent crest of loose yellowish feathers. The body is olive-coloured, varied with white above, and beneath is of a dull bay. The wings are short and rounded. The tail is long, and tipped with yellow. The legs are long, the feet stout, the tarsi reticulated, and the toes scutellated; the claws long and slightly curved. According to all who have observed the habits of this bird, it lives in bands on the lower trees and bushes bordering the streams and lagoons, feeding on leaves and various wild fruits, especially, says Mr Bates (Naturalist on the River Amazons, i. p. 120), on those of a species of Psidium, and it is also credited with eating those of an arum (Caladium arborescens), which grows plentifully in its haunts. “Its voice is a harsh, grating hiss,” continues the same traveller, and “it makes the noise when alarmed, all the individuals sibilating as they fly heavily away from tree to tree, when disturbed by passing canoes.” It exhales a very strong odour—wherefore it is known in British Guiana as the “Stink-bird ”— compared by Mr Bates to “musk combined with wet hides,” and by Deville to that of a cow-house. The species is said to be polygamous; the nest is built on trees, of sticks placed above one another, and softer materials atop. Therein the hen lays her eggs to the number of three or four, of a dull yellowish-white, somewhat profusely marked with reddish blotches and spots, so as to resemble those of some of the liallidae (Proc. Zool. Society, 1867, pl. xv. fig. 7. p. 164). In the valley of the Amazon it is called the “Cigano” or Gipsy, and in no part of the country where it occurs does it seem to be regarded with much favour. Only one species of the genus is known to have existed, for Mr Wallace’s statement (Geogr. Distrib. Animals, i. p. 164) that remains of a second have been found in Brazilian caves seems to have originated in a mistake. (a. n.)
HOADLY, Benjamin (1676-1761), the originator of the Bangorian controversy, was the second son of the Rev. Samuel Hoadly, and was born at Westerham, Kent, November 14, 1676. After receiving his early education under the direction of his father, he entered Catherine Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. and was for two years tutor, after which he held for ten years the lectureship of St Mildred in the Poultry, and along with it for the last eight years the rectory of St Peter-le-Poer, London. His first appearance as a controversialist was against Mr Calamy in reference to conformity, and immediately after this he engaged in a more important dispute with Bishop Atterbury against the Anglican doctrine of nonresistance. His principal treatises on this subject were the Measures of Submission to the Civil Magistrate and The Origin and Institution of Civil Government discussed ; and his part in the discussion was so much appreciated by the Commons that in 1709 they presented an address to the queen praying her to “bestow some dignity in the church on Mr Hoadly for his eminent services both to church and state.” The queen returned a favourable answer, but the dignity was not conferred. In 1710 he was presented by a private patron to the rectory of Streatham in Surrey. In 1715 he was appointed chaplain to the king, and the same year he obtained the bishopric of Bangor. In 1716 he published a Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Honjurors in Church and State, and in the following year preached before the king his famous sermon on the Kingdom of Christ, which was immediately published by royal command. These works were attacks on the divine authority of kings and of the clergy, but as the sermon dealt more specifically and distinctly with the power of the ...church, its publication caused an ecclesiastical ferment which in certain aspects has no parallel in religious history. It was at once resolved to proceed against him in convocation, but this was prevented by the king proroguing the assembly, a step which had consequences of vital bearing on the history of the church, since from that period the great Anglican council ceased to transact business of a more than formal nature. The restrained sentiments of the council in regard to Hoadly found expression in a war of pamphlets known as the Bangorian controversy, which, partly from a want of clearness in the statements of Hoadly, due perhaps both to his intellectual defects and to a cautious regard to ulterior consequences, partly from the disingenuousness of his opponents and the confusion resulting from exasperated feelings, developed into an intricate and bewildering maze of side discussions in which the main issues of the dispute were concealed almost beyond the possibility of discovery. But however vague and uncertain might be the meaning of Hoadly in regard to several of the important bearings of the questions around which he aroused discussion, he was explicit in denying the power of the church over the conscience, and its right to determine the condition of men in relation to the favour of God. To such an extent was the mind of the religious world exercised on the matters in dispute that in July 1717 as many as seventy-four pamphlets made their appearance; and at one period the crisis became so serious that the business of London was for some days virtually at a standstill. Hoadly was translated in 1721 to the see of Hereford, in 1723 to Salisbury, and in 1734 to Winchester. He died at his palace at Chelsea, April 17,1761. Though his writings possess no charm of style, and are not only devoid of originality, but characterized by great prolixity and dulness, they in their own day did important service to the cause of civil and religious liberty, and accidentally he was the occasion of a change in the practical authority of the church which had an influence of prime importance on its after history. He was an intimate friend of Dr Samuel Clarke, of whom he wrote a life.
The works of Hoadly were collected and published by his son in 3 vols., 1773. To the first volume was prefixed the article “Hoadly,” from the supplement to the Biοgrαphiα Britannica.
HOARE, Sir Richard Cobb (1758-1838), Bart.,English antiquary, eldest son of Sir Richard Hoare, the first baronet, an eminent banker, was born 9th December 1758. Having been accustomed in his youth to apply himself to business, the diligent habits which he then acquired induced him afterwards to relieve the tedium of his life by the study of topography and antiquities. In 1783 he married the eldest daughter of Lord Lyttelton, and on her death in 1785 he made a tour on the Continent, visiting France, Italy, and Switzerland. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1787, and in the following year he left England on a second Continental tour. The record of his travels was originally published by him in four volumes, and these were afterwards condensed into two, which appeared in 1810 under the title A Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily. Travelling on the Continent having been rendered insecure on account of the war with France, he next resolved to make a tour in Wales, taking Giraldus Cambrensis (de Barri) as his guide, and in 1808 he published a translation of Giraldus, with notes, illustrations, and a life of the author, in two splendid quarto volumes. In 1807 he visited Ireland; and he also published an account of this excursion. His most important contribution to antiquarian science was, however, his history of his native county, Wiltshire. In 1821 he completed in two volumes folio the History of Ancient Wiltshire, after which he commenced the History of Modern Wiltshire, and confining his attention to South Wiltshire was able with the help of several coadjutors almost to finish the work before his death. The first part—the history of the hundred of Mere—appeared in 1822, and the last part in 1843. Hoare died at Stourhead, May 19, 1838. For a ...notice of him and a list of his works, many of which were printed privately, see the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1838.
