286 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on the 
shaken before she will leave the nest, but once off she is 
undemonstrative, flying to the nearest dense thicket and 
remaining there till the danger is past. The eggs are of a 
dull white colour, opaque and somewhat rough, and those in 
my collection measure from 20 to 23 mm. in length by from 
16 to 17 in breadth. The legs of this bird are here always 
rose-pink ; the upper mandible of the bill is blackish, the 
lower dull white. 
112. Bucorax carer. Ground Hornbill. 
Comparatively common in most parts of the district, and 
one of our most useful birds, accounting for large numbers 
of snakes and destructive insects. A party of four—this 
season five—are always to be seen in the neighbourhood of 
my homestead, evidently composed of the two old birds and 
the young of the last season, those of previous years being 
doubtless driven away or having wandered off to found, beats 
of their own when the breeding-season comes round. They 
roost nightly in a certain projecting spur of forest composed 
of huge African mahoganies, and I have little doubt that it 
is in a hole in one of these trees that they annually hatch 
out their young. I can confirm to some extent Mr. Ayres’s 
statement, quoted by Mr. W. L. Sclater (‘Fauna of 
S. Africa,’ Birds, vol. iii. p. 105), with regard to the carrying- 
power of their call: birds booming on a hill 1000 yards 
from my house make so loud a sound that I feel sure that 
at twice that distance, and probably much more, under 
similar cireumstances—a valley between—they could still 
be heard, though, of course, more faintly. The 'T'shindawo 
wording of the call, no less than the better-known Zulu 
rendering, brings out well the idea, suggested by the actual 
tones of the birds, of the plaintive wife and the gruff 
practical husband : 
Female: “ Riti! Riti ! mwana waenda!” (“ Riti! Riti! 
the child’s gone!”’). 
Male: “ Ndizo, ndidzéngéra tshero” (“All right, the 
fewer mouths to feed ! ’—lit. ‘‘ I have less trouble in getting 
food’). 
