246 
Birds of Celebes; Bucerotidae. 
tioii of this Hornbill is a consequence of its fine tiying-powers and habit of 
flying at great heights. 
The habits of the Celebesian Cranorrhinus, which is rather nearly allied to 
Rhytidoceros, are thus described by Meyer (5)'. “As one looks down on a forest 
from a high j)oint, it appears to swim over the green foliage more majestically 
than any other bird of Celebes. Its flight is heavy, slow, and noisy, and audible 
from far away. Its cry is very lond, and not immediately to be distinguished 
from that of the Black Ape of Celebes^). They are often seen in pairs together. 
If the female is shot, the male returns to the spot after having flown away 
frightened by the shot; and therefore frequently male and female can be pro- 
cured. On a tree they are very active, jumping from branch to branch; they 
are fond of flghting and are generally aggressive birds”. Rosenberg (a 14) 
once obtained a female owing to this propensity, it being knocked down 
stunned by another of its sex. “They feed on forest fraits”. Layard observed 
that Antkracoceros coronatus, in order to obtain its food when attached to a 
branch, “resorts to an odd expedient — the coveted morsel is seized in its 
powerful bill, and the bird throws itself from its perch, twisting and flapping 
its wings until the fruit is detached; on this the wings are extended, the des- 
cent arrested, and the bird regains its footing”. A tame specimen had the 
parrot-like habit of using its bill in regaining its perch (Legge, B. Ceylon 274). 
In many Hornbills, especially in old examples, the cutting edges of the bill do 
not meet for a considerable space between the tip and the basal part. 
The head of nearly all Bucerotidae plays ethnographically a great role 
throughout the East Indian Archipelago, as Mr. Pleyte has recently shown (Rev. 
d’Ethn. 1885, 313 and 1886, 464). Wilken (Med. Ned. Zend. gen. 1863, 133) 
remarked on the present species in the Minahassa, that a head-hunter, w'ho has 
the intention of carrying out his dreadful work, fixes on his head half the head 
of a Buceros, and, after having been successful, he jauntily sticks an entire head 
of Buceros on his crown for every human head obtained in his expedition 
(cf. also Meyer’s notes in “Negritos” vol. IX Publ. Ethn. Mus. Dresden 1893, 
p. 9). The same author tells us that the Macassars and Bugis bury the head 
of this bird unter the chief pole of a new house (Bijdr. taal, land en volkenk. 
Ned. Ind. 1889, 110). 
1) Bernstein {J. f. 0. 1861, 115) says of the Java species that it roars like a wild beast. 
