98 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnorton o« 



immense fooJ-capacitj and apparent rapidity of digestion ; 

 by the minute size o£ the insects they condescended to eat — 

 very often, indeed, as small as or smaller than a honse-fly ; 

 and especiall}' by their extraordinary swiftness and accuracy 

 in seizing moving objects. His main observations in the 

 latter direction were in connection with rats. He often had 

 considerable quantities of grain on hand, and had to keep a 

 large number of cats to keep the numerous rats in check. 

 The cats used to be called whenever sacks had to be moved ; 

 but the Hornbills rendered this proceeding quite superfluous 

 as soon as they learned, as they quickly did, what the moving 

 of sacks portended. With cats and Hornbills present 

 together, the birds were easily first every time. As an 

 instance of their almost incredible swdftness, he states that 

 where a sack would be taken out from amongst others a 

 Horubill, standing back at least four and a half or five feet, 

 would every time catch a rat darting across the small space 

 thus left. Doubling, too, availed nothing. He described 

 far better than I have done the ludicrous nonchalance that 

 is so characteristic of the birds : — " Rats ? ! No-o-o — that 

 wasn't what they were there for : they just happened to have 

 arrived — accidentall}' — didn't know even now that anyone 

 was moving sacks. One would be gazing abstractedly at 

 the roof, the other perhaps seemed interested in the view. 

 They had an air of utter indifference — complete detachment. 

 Nevertheless, let a rat appear — and he was had ! Each bird 

 w'as at once transformed into a streak of lightning." 



His natives used to bring him in rats of all kinds for the 

 birds, and in illustration of the point I mentioned first, he 

 states that he has seen a Hornbill eat no less than ten good- 

 sized house-rats one after the other, walk about for a time 

 with the tail of the last hanging out, but bo back again in 

 an hour for more. This 1 can well believe from the quantity 

 of meat that my own birds will sometimes swallow before 

 they have even satisfied their hunger sufficiently to begin to 

 refuse " nauseous" insects. He, too, found that when fed 

 much at the house they neglected to hunt for food for them- 



