274 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOUBNAL 



would be left in the forest. The white 

 man would never need to come into the 

 wilderness. 



On the floor of the nest were the 



The male hornbill seals the knot-hole leading to the nest with 

 a plaster of mud, except for a small opening (visible at the lower 

 left corner). The female and ^ oung are imprisoned within, and 

 are fed by the male through the small opening. Thus, in the 

 free-standing columnar tree a stronghold is secured for the breed- 

 ing female and defenseless young, to which nest-pilfering mon- 

 keys, birds of prey, and even snakes can hardly gain access 



hard, black seeds of a large tree {Rici- 

 nodendron Heudeloti Baillon), in such 

 quantities that they helped to raise the 

 level of the moist bottom. They had 

 passed through the birds" 

 digestive tract without 

 any apparent change. Init 

 when ()i)ened they dis- 

 tinctly showed that the oil 

 they contained had been 

 extracted. Three of these 

 seeds are enclosed in a 

 capsule which, when ripe, 

 drops off and automati- 

 cally opens, scattering the 

 seeds on the ground, where 

 the hornbills are forced to 

 collect them. This is a 

 really perilous feat for the 

 l)irds because they gather 

 around the spot in such 

 numl)ers and with such 

 loud cries that the natives, 

 informed of tlieir where- 

 al)outs, find it a simple 

 matter to entrap them in 

 carefully set snares. 



There are TO species of 

 h(>nil)ills (Bucerotidae),40 

 of them being found in 

 tropical Asia and the East 

 Indies, while the other 30 

 are found only in Africa. 

 The birds in the group. 

 Cerafogi/mna atrata Tern., 

 lielong to the largest spe- 

 cies among the hornbills 

 of the West African rain 

 forests. One usually sees 

 tile l)irds in pairs, most 

 fre(|uentlv in the highest 

 tree tojis. rather avoiding 

 the neigliborhood of vil- 

 lages. Half a dozen or 

 more may gather near cer- 

 tain fruit-bearintf trees, 

 making their presence 

 known by the mournful, 

 oft-repeated "whao .... 

 whao . . . ."" for which the 

 ]\rantrbetu imitativelv calls 



