88 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



eyelashes, which increase the strangeness of its ap- 

 pearance. This species is found in most parts of 

 the plains of India, except the Malabar coast, where 

 it is replaced by Lophoceros griseus. The grey hombill 

 of Ceylon is the species L. gingalensis. 



The majority of species of hombill shun the vicinity 

 of human beings. They are accordingly to be found 

 only in the Terai and other great forest tracts. The 

 grey hombill, on the contrary, shows no fear of man. 

 Although strictly arboreal in its habits, it occurs in 

 those parts of the country that are not thickly wooded. 

 A grove of trees is all that it demands. Grey horn- 

 bills are birds of the highway and the village. Usually 

 they go about in small flocks. 



Lophoceros birostris is particularly abundant in the 

 sub-Himalayan districts of the United Provinces. In 

 Oudh and the eastern part of Agra almost every 

 village has its colony of grey hornbiUs. These ham- 

 lets are nearly always surrounded by trees, usually 

 bamboos, among which the hombills live. In many 

 parts of Northern India grey hombills are commonly 

 seen in the avenues of trees which are planted along 

 the high roads to shelter wayfarers from the midday 

 sun. 



Hombills feed largely on fruit and are fond of that 

 of the pipal and the banian trees. Their great bills 

 are admirably suited to the plucking of fruit. When 

 the hombill has severed a berry, it tosses it into the 

 air, catches it in the bill as it falls, and then swallows 

 it. This is the most expeditious way of passing the 

 food from the tip of its bill to the entrance to its gullet. 



