BUCEROTIDa! BUCORAX 105 



backbone ; it is swallowed head first and when the snake is a large 

 one" the bird will go about for some time with half the snake 

 trailing out from between its jaws. Tortoises are much relished, 

 all the flesh including its head and limbs are neatly picked away 

 from the unhappy reptile, leaving the shell clean and entire without 

 damage. 



The call of this bird is a kind of "boom-boom" constantly 

 repeated until it becomes quite wearisome ; Mr. Ayres states that it 

 can be heard at a great distance, under favourable circumstances as 

 far as two miles. My experience, which is, however, confined to a 

 bird in captivity, does not confirm this, but the sound, though by no 

 means loud, can be heard at a considerable distance. The call of 

 the female is similar, but is pitched a tone above that of the 

 male, and is usually heard in answer to that of the male. When 

 booming, the red pouch under the throat is usually, though 

 not invariably, distended with air ; this action can be performed at 

 will. Mr. Layard lays great stress on the evil stench emitted by 

 this bird, but I have not found this at all noticeable in the case of 

 the individual observed by myself. 



A complete account of the nesting habits of this bird has not, so 

 far as I am aware, yet been given, but it doubtless builds a nest on 

 the flat crown of a tree where the trunk has decayed away, or else 

 actually in a hole in a tree. Dr. Stark visited a nest at Bosch- 

 fontein, near Balgowan, in Natal ; it was in a hole, some 40 feet 

 up, in the trunk of a large tree growing in a small piece of thick bush. 

 The birds were stated to nest annually in the same place, and Mr. 

 Hutchinson, who showed him the nest, believed that several females 

 laid in the same hole, as more than one pair of birds visited the 

 young ones. 



The Woodwards also found a nest built of sticks in a large tree 

 standing by itself on the high flat lands over the Ifafa river in 

 Natal; in it were two young birds, one much larger than the other. 



An egg taken by Colonel- Bowker at Old Morley, a mission 

 station in Tembuland, now in the South African Museum, is a 

 somewhat elongated oval, tapering to a point. The shell is rather 

 rough and thick ; the colour was originally white, but is stained 

 and dirty; it measures 2-95 x ISO. 



Almost everywhere the natives of South Africa attach magical 

 properties to this bird, chiefly connected with the production of 

 rain. The Kaffirs of the eastern portion of the Colony, during times 

 of severe drought, kill one by order of the " Eain Doctor." A stone 



