36 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



dislike the heat very much. They have a remarkable flight ; 

 a few rapid beats of the pinions, then follows a long glide 

 through the air without the shghtest motion of the wings ; 

 and when alighting on a tree the great bill appears top heavy, 

 for the bird almost topples over, but then the tail is the next 

 moment brought down sharply from a vertical position, 

 whereby the balance is regained. As he sits on the knotty 

 bough of some leafless baobab tree, all bill, neck and tail, he 

 looks extremely comical, and reminds one of an Egyptian 

 hieroglyphic. 



The nesting habits of the hornbills are peculiar ; by 

 way of an example I will describe a nest which I found in a 

 hole in the upper stem of a high baobab. In this hole the 

 female was imprisoned, for the entrance was walled in with 

 mud, only allowing a small opening just large enough for the 

 bill of the bird, which from time to time popped out and in 

 as the noise of my ascent came nearer and nearer. When 

 taken out of her dark prison, she was a pitiable-looking 

 object, stiff and quite unable to fly in her filthy, featherless 

 condition. 



The reason of this remarkable nesting economy is, 

 I think, to safeguard the female during the moulting- 

 time, and at the same time to protect her, while sitting, 

 against enemies, of which the hornbills have many, such 

 as monkeys, which abound along the thickly wooded 

 streams. 



The game-birds to be found in Nigeria are three species 

 of francolins, a guinea-fowl, a rock-pheasant, sand-grouse and 

 two species of bustards. The francolins, or bush-fowl as 

 they are commonly called by travellers, are the partridges 



