Birds of South Africa 247 



ward gait, and peer from side to side with their great eyes in quest 

 of food in the short grass, poking their large bills at any frog, 

 snake, &c., that may come in their way. They are omnivorous in 

 their diet — reptiles, birds' eggs, beetles, and other insects, genguba 

 or ground-ants, constituting their food in the wild state. In confine- 

 ment I have fed this bird upon the same food, also upon fresh fish, 

 which it shewed itself very fond of, as well as on entrails of fowls, 

 &c. On letting one loose in Loan da, in a yard where there were 

 several fowls with chickens, it immediately gulped down its 

 throat six of the latter, and finished its breakfast with several eggs. 

 The note or cry of the male is like the hoarse blast of a horn, 

 repeated short three times, and answered by the female in a lower 

 tone. It is very loud, and can be heard at a considerable distance, 

 particularly at night. These birds are said to build their nests on 

 the very highest Adansoniae, in the hollow or cavity formed at the 

 base or junction of the branches with the trunk. Their flight is 

 feeble and not long sustained. When alarmed they generally fly 

 up to the nearest large tree, preferring such as have thick branches 

 with but little foliage, as the Adansonias. Here they squat close 

 on the branches, and, if further alarmed, raise themselves quite 

 upright on their legs, in the attitude of listening, with wide-open 

 bills. The first to notice a person at once utters their customary 

 cry, and all fly off" to the next tree. They are very wary, and the 

 grass near the mountains being comparatively short, with but 

 little scrub or bush, it is very difficult to approach without being 

 observed by them from the high trees." 



The foregoing elaborate notice indicates an exceedingly different 

 bird from the numerous and diversified other species of hornbills 

 (Bucerotidje), all of which latter (so far as known) are essentially 

 arboreal and frugivorous birds in the wild state, however compara- 

 tively carnivorous as observed in captivity. But there are several 

 instances of kindred genera of birds differing most remarkably in 

 their customary or occasional diet. Who would have supposed 

 that the Steatornis caripensis (one of the Caprimulgidie) subsisted 

 on berries ? And the strong-billed purple swallows (Progne) of 

 America are described to be partly baccivorous ! Again, the true 

 rollers (Coracias) are exclusively animal feeders, while the birds of 

 the kindred genus, Eurystomus — as observed in confinement, at 

 least — feed eagerly on bananas, as we have often personally wit- 

 nessed. The ordinary cuckoos (Cuculus, &c.,) are mainly devourers 

 of caterpillars, and in no instance, that we are aware of, partake 



