Schlegel, rare in Sennaar. Layard {fide B. of S. Africa) gives it as found in the Cape colony. 

 The B. cafer (Schlegel) inhabits CafFraria; and, as given by Prof. Bocage (if the name has not 

 been transposed), the same bird, called by him guineensis, was procured on the coast of Guinea, 

 thus making it range across the continent. If these birds are distinct, we have an extraordinary 

 geographical distribution for continental forms, as B. abyssinicus of Abyssinia is thus cut off from 

 its relatives in South Africa by B. cafer, which crosses the continent in the region of the Limpopo 

 river and Damaraland. If the distribution of the forms as here given is correct, I shall not be 

 able to reconcile myself to the belief that there are three distinct species of this bird until more 

 information is obtained respecting them, and the boundaries of each one are definitely fixed ; for 

 it would seem at least strange that on a continent one species should inhabit the northern and 

 southern portions, and the central part be occupied by a totally different species, and yet each keep 

 their respective characters intact ; for there must of necessity be many points where individuals of 

 the two forms would meet and, in such closely allied birds as these under consideration might not 

 unnaturally interbreed. A possible solution of the difficulty may be, that Layard did not describe 

 his JB. abyssinicus from a South-African specimen, as he states he never succeeded in getting one 

 while there, supposing, like most authors, that there was only one species, and that Prof. Bocage's 

 B. cafer, in his paper in the c Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society, was really intended for 

 B. guineensis. In such a case, we should have the range of the forms as follows : — B. abyssinicus 

 from East Africa, Abyssinia, and Sennaar ; B. guineensis from Acra, West Africa ; and B. cafer 

 from all the region south of and including Damaraland and the Zambesi district. I have not 

 been able to examine an authentic adult South- African specimen. 



I have found some considerable difficulty in working out the synonymy of the three forms as 

 presented here, because of course I have not had access to the specimens mentioned by the various 

 writers ; but I believe that, in the main, they will be found to be tolerably correct. 



The Ground-Hornbill, although a frequenter of plains, is also a mountain-loving species, and 

 has been met with at a considerable height above the sea ; for, as stated by Blanford in his 

 ' Zoology of Abyssinia/ it is chiefly found in that country at an elevation of from 4000-5000 feet, 

 although also met with lower down. Monteiro, who procured the bird in Angola, states it to be 

 everywhere present in that land, but more abundant in the interior, and very common on the 

 mountain-range where Pungo Andongo is situated. Por some unexplained reason, this species is 

 an object of superstitious dread to the natives of the various countries it inhabits. Monteiro was 

 unable to induce them to attempt its capture ; and on Andersson's asking a chief in Ondonga to 

 get him the eggs, he received the reply that it was not to be done, as they were soft to the touch 

 and would break in pieces on the least handling. The Pingoes, says Layard, object to shoot them, 

 lest they should lose their cattle by disease. 



The food of this Hornbill appears to consist of almost any thing edible that falls in its way. 

 In Abyssinia Blanford found it to be almost entirely insectivorous, the stomachs of those he 

 examined containing chiefly large beetles and locusts, in one instance the remains of scorpions 

 and large spiders. In a certain case, however, he found fragments of bones, apparently of a 

 tortoise. Once he observed this bird near some mule-carcasses, but not feeding on them, so far 

 as he could see. In Angola, Monteiro found them to be omnivorous, feeding upon reptiles, 





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