126 



wing if pressed. Their main food appears to be frogs 

 and reptiles which they find in the swamps, but they 

 also eat any dead ones or other carrion they come 

 across, and, in addition, I am pretty sure they also eat 

 groundnuts and various bush-fruits ; at least, one I 

 knew tame used to eat any kind of food, animal or 

 vegetable, indiscriminately, and was particularly fond 

 of all kinds of fruit. 



The other two species are much smaller birds, 

 being about the size of a Pigeon, though their long 

 necks and bills, and general loose build, make them 

 appear larger. The commonest species is the Black- 

 billed Hornbill (^Lophoceros nastdiis), a brown and 

 white bird with a yellow and black beak, which is 

 plentiful everywhere at all seasons, but simply swarms 

 in and around Bathurst at the beginning of the rains, 

 and where it is commonly known as the "Rainbird." 

 The other species, the Redbilled Hornbill (Z. erythro- 

 rhyncJms), is mainly black and white in plumage with 

 a red beak; it is rather smaller in size and more 

 locally distributed than the Black-billed species. In 

 habits both are alike, haunting trees and bush, and 

 feeding chiefl}^ if not entirely, on vegetable sub- 

 stances, fruits, berries etc., and like so many other 

 Gambian beasts and birds, living almost entirely on 

 groundnuts during the time they are fresh and still 

 lying in the fields. Their note is a long-drawn 

 whistle, and their flight slow and dipping, and often 

 much hindered and laborious if there is any wind 

 against them. They nest in holes in trees, the female, 

 as is usual in this family, being walled in and fed by 

 the male during the period of incubation. 



(To be cofitimied) . 



