THE HORX BILLS. 351 



by any visitor to the London Zoological Gardens, where there is generally one, if not two, out of the 

 seven species known. Of the bird in its native haunts a very good idea is given us by the " Old 

 Bushman," the late Mr. Henry Wheelwright, which is here taken from a little work called the " Bush 

 Wanderings of a Naturalist." " About an hour before sunrise the bushman is awakened by the most 

 discordant sounds, as if a troop of fiends were shouting, whooping, and laughing around him in one 

 wild chorus : this is the morning song of the ' Laughing Jackass,' warning his feathered mates that 

 daybreak is at hand. At noon the same wild laugh is heard, and as the sun sinks into the west it 

 again rings through the forest. I shall never forget the first night I slept in the open bush in this 

 country. It was in the Black Forest. I woke about daybreak, after a confused sleep, and for some 

 minutes I could not remember where I was, such were the extraordinary sounds that greeted my ears ; 

 the fiendish laugh of the Jackass, the clear, flute-like note of the Magpie, the hoarse cackle of the 

 Wattle-birds, the jargon of flocks of Leatherheads, and the screaming of thousands of Parrots as they 

 dashed through the forest, all joining chorus, formed one of the most extraordinary concerts I have ever 

 heard, and seemed at the moment to have been got up for the purpose of welcoming the stranger to 

 this land of wonders on that eventful morning. I have heard it hundreds of times since, but never 

 with the same feelings that I listened to it then. The Laughing Jackass is the bushman's clock, and 

 being by no means shy, of a companionable nature, a constant attendant about the bush-tent, and a 

 destroyer of Snakes, is regarded, like the Robin at home, as a sacred bird in the Australian forests. It 

 is an uncouth-looking bird, a huge species of land Kingfisher, nearly the size of a Crow, of a rich 

 chestnut brown and dirty white colour ; the wings slightly chequered with light blue, after the manner 

 of the British Jay ; the tail-feathers long, rather pointed, and barred with brown. It has the foot of a 

 Kingfisher ; a very formidable, long, pointed beak, and a large mouth ; it has also a kind of crest, which 

 it erects when angry or frightened, and this gives it a very ferocious appearance. It is a common bird 

 in all the forest throughout the year ; breeds in a hole of a tree, and the eggs are white ; generally seen 

 in pairs, and by no means shy. Their principal food appears to be small reptiles, grubs, and caterpillars. 

 As I said before, it destroys Snakes. I never but once saw them at this game : a pair of Jackasses had 

 disabled a Carpet-Snake under an old gum-tree, and they sat on a dead branch above it, every now and 

 then darting down and pecking it, and by their antics and chattering seemed to consider it a capital 

 joke. I can't say whether they ate the Snake I fancy not; at least the only reptiles I have ever found 

 in their stomachs have been small Lizards. The first sight that struck me on landing in London was a 

 poor old Laughing Jackass moped up in a cage in Ratcliffe Highway. I never saw a more miserable, 

 woe-begone object. I quite pitied my poor old friend, as he sat dejected on his perch ; and the thought 

 struck me at the time that we were probably neither of us benefited in changing the quiet freedom of 

 the bush for the noise and bustle of the modern Babylon." The Common Laughing Jackass has the 

 sexes alike, but in all the other species the male has a blue tail and the female a red one. 



THE FOUETH FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTRAL PICARIAX BIRDS. 

 THE HORNBILLS (Buceroiida) . 



These birds are found in Africa, India, and throughout the Malayan region and Molucca Islands, as 

 far as New Guinea. They are birds of rather ungainly appearance, nearly every species having a casque, 

 or helmet, which is developed in every variety of shape, and in some of them reaches an extraordinary 

 size. The flat soles which were alluded to in the Kingfishers are here developed in a greater degree, 

 and the toes are united together in exactly the same way. The flight, however, of the Hornbills is very 

 different from that of the Kingfishers, being heavy and performed with an abundance of noise : so 

 much so that some explorers in South-eastern New Guinea have been led to speak of a bird 

 whose wings, when flying, produced a noise " resembling a locomotive," but which was doubt- 

 less made by the large Hornbill (Bnceros * ruficollis), which frequents that part of the world. 

 They are generally found on very lofty trees and at a great height, which makes them difficult to 

 shoot ; and Governor Ussher says that in ascending the lonely forest-clad rivers of North- western Borneo 

 the only sign of life is often a solitary Hornbill flying across at a great height in the air. Wallace 

 states that the Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros r/tinoceros), a native of the Malayan Peninsula and Borneo, 



* /Joi'*pc<K, having the horn (ice'pcw) of a cow (jSous). 



