XV 

 THE GREY HORNBILL 



HORNBILLS, like the Jews, are a peculiar 

 race. There are no other birds like 

 unto them. They are fowls of extrava- 

 gant form. Their bodies are studies 

 in disproportion. The beak and tail of each species 

 would fit admirably a bird twice as big as their actual 

 possessor, while birds less than half their size might 

 well look askance at the wings with which hornbills 

 are blessed. With the solitary exception of the " cake 

 walk " of the adjutant [Leptoptilus dubius), I know of 

 no sight in Nature more absurd than the flight of 

 the hornbill. By dint of a series of vigorous flaps 

 of its disproportionately short wings the bird manages 

 to propel itself through the air. But the efforts put 

 forth are too strenuous to be maintained for many 

 seconds at a time. When it has managed to acquire 

 a little impetus, the great bird gives its pinions a 

 rest, and sails at a snail's pace for a few seconds, 

 after which, in order to save itself from falling, it 

 violently flaps its wings again, and thus manages 

 to win its way laboriously from one grove to another, 

 in much the same way as the primitive flying reptiles 



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