122 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA, 
Fam. BUCEROTIDZ. 
116. Bucorax carer. South African Ground Hornbill. 
Professor Barboza du Bocage, following the idea of Professor 
Schlegel, has separated the Ground-Hornbill of South Africa from 
the other two species which inhabit Abyssinia and the west coast 
of the continent. In this he is apparently quite justified, the different 
shape of the casque being a good character. 
The “ Brom-vogel,” as it is called from the droning cry which it 
utters, is common on the Hastern frontier, where the birds associate 
in large flocks and devour vast quantities of grubs and locusts. The 
Fingoes seem to attach some superstitious veneration to them, and 
object to their being shot in the neighbourhood of their dwellings, 
lest they should lose their cattle by disease. 
We are indebted to several correspondents for notes upon this 
singular bird. From East London, Mr. T. C. Rickard writes :—‘ I had 
one alive for nearly two months; it ate rats, birds, snakes, rotten 
eggs, &c, also dry mealies; the latter did not digest. It tossed up its 
food, and caught it as it fell. They are said to breed in a hole ina 
‘Krantz’ on the Buffalo River: my informant says that he has seen 
the eggs, which are large, and white. The Kaffirs have a super- 
stition that if one of these birds is killed, it will rain for a long time. 
I am told that in time of drought, it is their custom to take one alive, 
tie a stone to it, and then throw it into a ‘vley’; after this rain is 
supposed to follow. They avoid using the water in which this 
ceremony has been performed. When I had this one in my yard we 
were getting a good deal of rain, and I often heard the Kaffirs blame 
me for keeping the bird a prisoner. Kaflir name ‘ Insigees.’? ”’ 
( Mr. H. Bowker writes :—“ There are many superstitions connected 
with the ‘ Brom-vogel’, the bird is held sacred by the Kaflirs, and is 
only killed in times of severe drought, when one is killed by order of 
the ‘rain doctor, and its body thrown into a pool ina river. The 
idea is, that the bird has so offensive a smell that it will ‘make the 
water sick,’ and that the only way of getting rid of this, is to wash it 
away to the sea, which can only be done by heavy rains, and flooding 
of the river. |The ground where they feed is considered good for cat- 
