KINGFISHERS— HORNBILLS. 



339 



The Hombills.- 

 Sub- order 



Bucerotes. 



wheet-wheet-wheet, ia usually uttered -while the bird i? perched on a bare, 

 transverse branch or woody, rope-like climber, which it uses as a look-out 

 station, and whence it makes short dashes at any passing insect or small 

 lizard, generally returning to the same spot. It is a shy, suspicious bird, 

 and one well calculated to try the patience of the shooter, who may follow it 

 in a small brush for an hour without getting a shot, unless he has as keen an 

 eye as the native to whom I was indebted for first pointing it out to me. 

 According to the natives, who know it by the name of 'Quatawur,' it lays 

 three white eggs in a hole dug by itself in one of the large ant-hills of red 

 clay which form so remaikable a feature in the neighbourhood, some of 

 them being as much as 10 ft. in height, with numerous buttresses and 

 } lunacies. I believe that the bird also inhabits New Guinea ; for at Redscar 

 Bay, on the south-east side of that great island, in Long. 146° 50' E. , a held, 

 strung upon a necklace, was procured from the natives." We now know 

 that the New Guinea bird is distinct, and is T. suhadoriaiia. 



The Hornbills are remarkable birds, not only on account of their form, but 

 from the singular habit which every one of the species affects, so far as we 

 know, of imprisoning the female while she is engaged in 

 incubating. The Hornbills vary immensely in size, from 

 the great Rhinoceros Hornbill (Bucerus rhinoce^-os), which 

 is nearly 4 ft. long, to the tiny Lophocerus hartlanbi which 

 is only just over a foot in length. The Ground-Hornbills 

 (Bucorax) are natives of Africa, where they are generally distributed in the 

 Ethiopian region. They are thoroughly terrestrial birds, of black plumage, 

 with a little red or blue decoration on the bill, or the bare portion of the 

 throat. Walking about on the ground, they have the appearance of black 

 Turkeys, and are considered " omen "-birds among the Kaffirs. They will 

 devour almost any food, and eat numbers of beetles, worms, small rodents, 

 etc., and they also kill large snakes, against which 

 they generally advance in company, holding their 

 wings before them like a shield. 



The Great Hornbill {Dlchocerusbicornis) is a native 

 of the Western Ghauts of India and the Himalayas, 

 and thence through the Burmese Provinces to the 

 Malayan Peninsula to the mountains of Sumatra. 



The Pied Hornbills (A^itkracocerus) are found in 

 India and the Burmese Provinces to Cochin 

 China, and south to the Malayan Peninsula to 

 the Sunda Islands. These birds are generally 

 found in family parties, consisting of five or six 

 individuals. They inhabit well-wooded countries 

 and forests, especially near rivers, where they have 

 been known to feed on fish. Their chief food, 

 however, consists of fruits and berries. 



The habits of the Hornbills seem to be alike in 

 their method of nidification, but in some species the 

 act of enclosing the female is performed by the male, 

 whereas in some instances the female assists in her 

 own imprisonment. Some explanation for this 

 curious custom may be found in the circumstance 

 that when the female has laid her egg in the hollow 

 tree, she commences to moult, and would therefore be entirely defenceless 



Fig.T3.—7iir, Maiabae Pied 



Hornbill 



(Anthracocerus coronatus). 



