62 



PICARIAN BIRDS. 



black, with a red patch on the lower mandible, and the feet are dusky black ; 

 while the bare parts of the face are red, with the exception of the naked skin 

 round the eye and on the middle of the thi"oat, which is blue. The female has 

 the bare skin of the throat and region of the eye purple. In Xorth-Eastem 

 Africa this hombill is said to be found in the wooded steppes and on the 

 mountains up to a height of four thousand feet, though more common between 



ABYSSINIAN OROUND-HORNBILL {\ nat size). 



one and two thousand feet. After the breeding-season they assemble in small 

 flocks, when as many as ten or a dozen are seen together. Of the habits of the 

 South African ground-hombill more is recorded. Known to the Boers as the 

 bromvogel, this species is regarded as a fetich among many of the native tribes, 

 being a rain-omen with the Kaffirs, who believe that if one of these hombills is 

 killed there will be rain for a long time, and who, therefore, in times of drought 

 will throw one of the birds into a vley, in order that rain may follow. 

 Colonel Bowker says that the bird is so offensive that the native idea is 



