246 Journal of Travel and Natural History 



Of that exceedingly remarkable bird, the ground hornbill 

 (Bucorax Abyssinicus), the " Abba Gumba" of Bruce, we are 

 infoniied that it is 



" Common on the eastern frontier, but in consequence of their feeding on 

 carrion, and emitting a dreadful stench, I have not succeeded in inducing any 

 of my correspondents to send me one. I am told that they associate in large 

 flocks, and devour vast quantities of grubs and locusts. They get their name 

 (" brom-vogel" of the colonists) from the droning cry they utter. The Fingoes 

 seem to attach some superstitious veneration to them, and object to their being 

 shot in the neighbourhood of their dwellings, lest they should lose their cattle 

 by disease. Le Vaillant figures a head of this bird, in which the bare space 

 round the eye, and the lower portion of that on the neck, are blue. In a single 

 dried liead which we possess those parts are deep orange-red." 



The difference in colour of the facial and inflatable gular skin 

 is sexual. In a crippled male lately in the London Zoological 

 Gardens, the skin of those parts was bright red, whereas in three 

 healthy females at the present time in the collection the same 

 naked skin is livid blue. The " Abba Gumba" differs widely 

 from all the rest of its tribe by its lengthened shank and chiefly 

 terrene habits. As it stalks about on the ground, nobody 

 unacquainted with it could suppose, at a moderately distant view, 

 what manner of bird it is, or, in other words, to what family of 

 birds it appertains. Its eyes are exceedingly prominent and very 

 mobile, being usually half covered by the upper lid, which is 

 fringed with strongly developed lashes, and with its projecting 

 visual organs thus screened, as it steps about, the bird attentively 

 surveys the ground around and about for the larger insects, and 

 any small living vertebrated creatures that fall in its way, being 

 an eager snake-devourer, and buffeting those reptiles with its 

 wings. In that valuable repertory of ornithological lore, the 

 " Ibis," there are sundry notices of the habits of this anomalous 

 ground-hornbill. According to Mr J. J. Monteiro, the species is 

 common in the interior of Angola, being seen " in flocks of six or 

 eight (the natives say always in equal number of males and 

 females). Further in the interior I was credibly informed that 

 they are seen in flocks of from one to two hundred indivitluals. 

 The males raise up and open and close their tails exvictly in the 

 manner of a turkey, and fllling out their bright cockscomb-red 

 bladder-like wattle on the neck, and, with wings drooping to the 

 ground, they make quite a grand display. They do not present a 

 less extraordinary appearance as they walk slowly with an awk- 



