BUCEROTIDAE 



393 



the small opening left, and is even said to knock with his bill 

 to attract her attention as he clings to the bark. He shews 

 great anxiety about his charge, and the hen screams and bites 

 if molested. Various members of the Family expand the tail 

 and inflate the throat when courting ; some thrive fairly 

 well as pets ; while Aceros nipalensis of India, and Dichoceros 

 hicornis, the Homrai, ranging thence to the Malay countries, are 

 said to be excellent eating. The latter is sacred to Vishnu ; the 

 immured female of Wiyficloceros suhruficollis serves as a type of 

 virtue to the Burmese ; and natives believe that the plaster for 

 the holes is composed of gum and earth from the four quarters of 

 the globe. In South Africa the Fingoes think that their cattle 

 will contract disease if Hornbills are shot ; Kafirs consider that 

 drought will cease if one of them is sunk under water and drowned ; 

 Ovampos pretend that the eggs are too brittle to be handled. 



Some nineteen genera may be admitted, from the Ethiopian, 

 Indian, and Australian Eegions, with about seventy species, more 

 than thirty of which occur in each of the first two areas ; a 

 couple inhabit Celebes, and one ranges over the Moluccas and 

 Papuasia to the Solomon Islands. None inhabit Australia. 



The somewhat scanty plumage is usually black, white, and 

 grey ; but a greenish or bluish tinge, or rufous heads and lower 

 parts are not unfrequent. Crests are present, except in Bucorvus ; 

 Ceratogymna has a gular wattle ; Berenicornis and Ortholophus 

 exhibit long upcurved loral plumes ; while the orbits and throat 

 are more or less naked, and usually of brilliant colours, these with 

 the bill and casque being often a distinguishing mark between 

 the sexes. The last develops gradually in the duller young. 



Rhinoplax vigil of the Malay countries, termed the Helmet 

 Hornbill, has a line down the back and the neck naked and red. 

 The casque is yellow in front and red behind, and is much used 

 by Eastern artists for carving and making brooches. Bereni- 

 cornis comatus, of the same districts, has a moderate black keeled 

 casque, and bare blue orbits and throat. The female exhibits 

 less white. Bycanistes buccinator of East Africa has a large 

 blackish fm-rowed casque and purple naked areas. Lophoceros 

 nasutus of North-East and West Africa, has the bill and rudi- 

 mentary casque black, with a yellow streak on the maxilla and 

 several oblique yellow ridges on the mandible, the bare orbits 

 apparently grey. In the female the bill shews red in place of black. 



