XXVIII BEAKS 343 



The Ground Hornbill (Biicorvu.'i) ditfers from the 

 arboreal species (Buccros) in several points. In size 

 and general appearance it resembles a turkey, indeed 

 English settlers in Africa often call it the " turkey 

 buzzard." It has longer legs and shorter toes than the 

 tree species ; it runs along the ground and does not hop. 

 It ditfers from other hornlnlls in having its casrpie open 

 in front. Bucorvus can tly when necessary. This l)ird 

 feeds on small reptiles, tortoises, insects, and everything 

 that crawls : also roots, fruits, and berries. Like Buceros 

 it tosses dainty bits in the air before swallowing them. 



In captivity ground hornbills make delightful pets ; 

 their eyelids bear e3felashes which are really modified 

 feathers, and when they screw up the eyelids and quiz 

 onlookers and bystanders, the effect is very comic, and 

 often weirdly human. 



These birds are heavy on the wing and wdien Hying 

 produce a sound like a small steam-engine. Among 

 trees they shuffle along the branches and resem1)]e 

 in awkwardness a scullery maid at a ball. Ground 

 hornbills go about in small groujjs, and roost at night 

 in trees, and, though little is known uf their Ijreeding 

 habits, it is probable that they Ijuild in the flat crown of 

 a tree where the trunk has decayed away, or actually 

 in a hole (Stark). 



The Whale-headed Stork or Shoe-bill, is an extra- 

 ordinary bird: in 1860 two living examples were 

 brouglit to England by Petherick and exhiliited in the 

 Zoological Gardens. They were obtained from tlie 

 Upper Nile. It is a gaunt bluish-grey Ijird, four feet 

 in height and possesses the biggest bill of any living 

 l)ird : it is yellow with dusky mottlings and not unlike 

 the head of a whale, but the Arabs liken its head and 

 jaws to an Arabian shoe and call it the " Father of a 

 Shoe." This bird feeds (■liietly on fishes. Whale-headed 

 storks are grotesque lo<jking objects as they stand 

 alone or in pairs among the rushes on the shores of 

 broad rivers, marshes, inlets of lakes, and liackwaters. 



