YHE NliDIOLOCilSt 



83 



aperture with their beaks until it is wide 

 enough for the birds to escape. The female 

 emplo3's the period of incubation in 

 moulting and receives a new dress in reward 

 for her sacrifices. The narrowness of the 

 nest compels the 3-oung birds to keep their 

 tails turned up and they retain this habit 

 through the first few days of their fieedom, 

 giving a comical aspect to their already 

 grotesque figures. 



I gained possession of Hermann at the 

 end of September, 1883, near the Melumbe 

 mountains where we, Dr. Bohm and my- 

 self, had encamped alter crossing the Tan- 

 ganjika on our march towards Katanga in 

 the upper Congo region. 



Manamlala, the Wanjamuesi warrior, 

 brought the poor bird into camp in a piti- 

 able condition, his legs tied together and 

 slung head downward on the barrel of a 

 gun with three of his mates. Hermann 

 would have been eaten like the others if I 

 had not accidentally seen him. My reason 

 for selecting him was that he was the only 

 one of the four that had not had his legs 

 broken by the unfeeling savage. Hermann 

 was wet through with the rain and badly 

 chilled. I dried him over the camp fire 

 and after I had taken the precaution of 

 clipping the feathers of one of his wings, 

 he sat quiet and contented, wrapped in a 

 handkerchief on the foot of my camp bed. 

 Hermann was of slender figure like all 

 his tribe, whose unpretentious gray uni- 

 form he wore. He measured about 40 

 centimeters from the tip of his tail to that 

 of his beak. Whenever he perched any- 

 where he let his tail hang down perpendic- 

 ularly, drew his wings up high like 

 shoulders and laid his head between them, 

 so that his great beak extended far out over 

 his puffed up breast feathers. He was funni- 

 est of all when he was asleep. His lesser 

 wing coverts met above his head which was 

 drawn down until nothing of it was visible 

 except a little of the back, and the tip of 

 his beak; an extremely droll attitude. 



The most noticeable part of Hermann's 

 figure was his raven-like beak, which was 

 unproportionally large, but as light as a 

 feather. In old age a horny protuberance 

 is formed on the upper part of the beak. 

 Hermann 's tongue was little and crooked 

 and lay in the back of his capacious moiith, 

 yet he had a fine sense of taste located in 

 the tip of his beak. 



Hermann was remarkable for the beaut}'^ 

 of his eyes which were black with bright 



yellow irises. They looked as intelligent 

 as those of a man, and Hermann was intel- 

 ligent, extremely intelligent. 



Whenever he was pleased, or had some 

 other especial cause for calling atiention to 

 his presence he would cry loud and dis- 

 tinctly, " dili, dili, dili ! " Beside this he 

 had a great number of other sounds at his 

 command, low groans, croaks and purrs, 

 and as a man could easily learn to imitate all 

 these sounds, Hermann and I soon learned 

 to understand each other in the kakah 

 language. Kakah is the negroes' name lor 

 the bird, an absurdly poor imitation of his 

 cry. 



I soon acquire i Hermann's language and 

 could call, wax, warn, flatter or scold him 

 in his own idiom, could call him to his 

 meals, make him drop a morsel he had 

 already picked up, and could goad him 

 into a furious rage. 



Hermann gained his European name by 

 accident. As the negro boy was bringing 

 us our food Dr. Bohm cried, "Is that you 

 Hermann? ' ' At the same moment our bird 

 appeared on the scene and so we gave the 

 name to him . We took it for granted that 

 he was a male, though with this species the 

 sexes cannot be distinguished either by the 

 plumage or the form of the beak. 



After scarcely an hour spent in his 

 strange surroundings Hermann became so 

 tame that he would hop upon an out- 

 stretched finger, and with loud cries would 

 eat grasshoppers, a habit which he retained 

 through the whole of his short life. 



I must confess that I was rather taken 

 aback by the readiness with which Her- 

 mann submitted to his fate, for it seemed 

 an evidence of stupidity, yet, I reasoned, 

 he is only an infant, and in youth even 

 men forget quickly, especially when, like 

 him, they are very hungry. 



Thenceforth Hermann shared all our 

 meals, perching upon the table and eating 

 very cleanly from the plate with me. He 

 usually behaved respectably and rarely 

 scattered his food about, for he knew that 

 this would result in his exclusion from the 

 table. 



There was one evil habit of which I 

 could not break him. The forcible means 

 employed in treating young dogs could not 

 be used with Hermann for he had no nose. 



As we are traveling continually I had a 

 light basket, in the shape of a beehive made 

 of twigs and bark, and when on the march 

 Hermann was carried in this by my little 



