Expedition to the Zambesi River. 10 1 



tree) J these trees affording the bird a good supply of food 

 throughout the winter mouths. 



Adult S • Total length (measured in flesh) 20-6 inches, 

 wing 9'8. Bill red, darker along cutting-edge, band at base 

 creamy yeliow; iris lemon-yellow; legs and feet dark brown. 

 Contents of stomach, locusts. 



142. LOPHOCEROS EPIRHINUS (Suudcv.). 



Rare. This species was probably breeding in September, 

 since only males were obtained. The cry is a shrill whine. 



Adult S ' Total length (measured in flesh) 19* 12 inches, 

 wing 8*7. Iris hazel ; bill black ; streak and ridges creamy 

 white ; legs and feet brown. 



143. LoPHOCEROS ERYTHRORHYNCHUS (Teuim,). 



We devoted a good deal of our time and patience to getting 

 together a collection of all the Hornbills of the Zambesi 

 region, none of Avhich can be called common ; but this 

 species is perhaps the most numerous. We met with it iu 

 fair numbers near Tete and again at Cliicowa. The birds 

 were in flocks and were as shy and wary as they could be, 

 giving us little opportanity of approach within gunshot. But 

 eventually, after several futile attempts to obtain specimens 

 by walking towards them, we got to know the particular 

 trees to which they used to repair on the approach of danger, 

 and by hiding near one of these favourite resorts and having 

 the birds driven towards it we procured a very fair number 

 of specimens of both sexes, and chiefly adult birds. The 

 vicinity of water is essential to this species. 



Duriug the cool of the morning and evening they used 

 to troop down to the river as regular as clockwork, and then 

 back again to their old haunts, which are seldom deserted 

 for others. The confines of thick woods where the under- 

 growth is small and interspersed with high baobab-trees are 

 favourite localities. And in the holes of these baobabs they 

 spend most of the day, for they appear to dislike the heat 

 very much. On the approach of the pairing-season iu 

 November, they scatter and hide themselves away in thick 

 woods, often filling these silent places with their peculiar 



