All rights reserved. J July, 1910. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 
The Birds of Gambia. 
Ry E. HOPKINSON, D.8.O., M.A., M.B. 
( Continued from p. 159.) 
BUCEROTIDAE. 
The Hornhills are represented in the Gambia by five or six species, 
three of which are common, namely the large Ground-Hornbill (Bucorrus) 
and two (perhaps three) of the smaller arboreal genus Lophoceros, while I 
know another bird larger than the latter, of whose identity I am doubtful, 
but suppose it to be Bycanistes fist ulator. 
Bucorvm abyssinicus. GROUND HORNBILL. 
Rani/e. Abyssinia ; West Africa. (ILL). 
A bird of distinctly grotesque appearance and heavy build, rather 
larger than a goose, though when alive on the ground or on the wing, it 
looks much bigger, in fact, absolutely enormous, so that when I come upon a 
pair stalking sedately, as is their wont, over the ground, I am always re- 
minded of the Dodo, — its pictures of course I mean. Their general colour 
is black-brown with a white wing-patch, which, however is only visible when 
the wings are spread ; the cheeks and neighbourhood of the eyes are naked, 
the bare skin being blue clianging into red towards the edges of the patch ; 
the throat, which is distended to form a pouch, is also bare of feathers and 
coloured like the cheeks in the male, but purple in the female ; another 
noticeable feature is the presence on the upper eyelid of a number of long 
black and very stiff lashes. The beak, black with a line of horn-brown at 
the base of the lower mandible, is enormously developed and surmounted by 
a casque, which is open and abruptlj^ truncated in front, looking exactly as 
if it had been cut off with a knife. The legs are black, the irides grey ; 
length about 40 inches. 
They are usually found in pairs stalking about the dry swamps, but 
in the early mornings one not infrequently comes on a flock of twenty or 
more feeding altogether in the fields and clearings, which they quarter with 
methodical care, as they march solemnly across in a more or less regular line. 
On these occasions they are much less shy and allow one to approach much 
nearer before they fly away, than they do later on in the day, when they are 
much more wary and keep well out of gunshot, walking slowly away as one 
tries to approach, but taking wing if pressed too closely, when they fly off 
for a couple of hundred yards or so to take refuge in cover or on a tree at a 
safe distance. Their cry is a remarkable one, which can be heard at a great 
