Hornbills. 
(22) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
good feather might perhaps be wintered with¬ 
out heat in a large space where they could fly 
about freely. 
Bad Monitors. 
For some reason or other they are very apt to 
moult badly in captivity in England, the flights 
and tail-quills coming deformed or not at all. 
In the East this does not seem to occur, except 
in the case of the Pied Hornbill ( Anthracoceros 
malabaricus), which we could not keep in good 
condition, even in Calcutta, in the same indoor 
aviary in which other species kept in perfect 
plumage, and I do not understand the reason 
of this at all. The fact, however, that one 
species proved a bad moulter even in India 
seems to show that the cause of the bad moult 
lies in some constitutional weakness, probably 
inherent in the Pied Hornbill, and induced over 
here by the cold climate in the others. Horn- 
bills, I may mention, have never bred in cap¬ 
tivity anywhere, so far as I know. 
African Hornbills. 
Two of the African species most frequently 
r mported are the Elate ( Ceratogymna data) and 
the Black ( Ceratogymna atrata), and the photo¬ 
graphs are taken from specimens now living, 
ft will be observed that they differ strik¬ 
ingly in the form of the horn, this being nar¬ 
row in the former and thick and rounded in the 
latter. The Elate Hornbill also has a loose blue 
wattle on the throat which is less developed in 
the other. Both are mainly black in plumage, 
but the hens have chestnut heads. The small¬ 
est Hornbill I have seen in captivity was an 
African species, the Red-billed (Tookus erythro- 
rhynchus), a brown bird about as big as a Mag¬ 
pie, with no horn on the bill. I have seen these 
birds actually eating canary seed, cracking it 
with their great beaks, and jerking it down their 
throats ! 
.4 Rare Bird. 
The Subcylindrical Hornbill ( Bycauistes 
subcylindricus ) is one of the rarest birds known, 
the present specimen being only the second or 
third ever recorded. The first, like the present, 
lived at the Zoo. It also comes from West 
Africa, and is rather small for a Hornbill, being 
slightly less in size than the Elate. Its colours 
are sufficiently shown by the photo, being merely 
black and white, with some grey on the head. 
Some Asiatic Species. 
The largest and finest of all Hornbills is the 
Concave-casqued ( Dichoceros bicornis), of which 
a pair are represented, although the hen, poor 
thing, is very much out of condition, having 
neither flights nor tail. In this bird the plu¬ 
mage is pied, and the casque very broad and con¬ 
cave on top, while there is a curious sex differ¬ 
ence in the colour of the eyes, those of the male 
being red, while the female’s are white. I once 
saw quite a nestling of this species in Calcutta; 
it was about as big as a duck, and only feathered 
on the head, wings, and tail, the bare skin of the 
body being of a purplish blue. This bird is 
found both in India (especially in the lower 
Himalayan forests), and in the Malayan coun¬ 
tries, the mountain specimens being the largest 
birds, and reaching over four feet in length. 
The Malayan Wreathed Hornbill ( Rhytido - 
ccros plicatus) is also one of the large species, 
and, like several others, has a bill of somewhat 
brittle texture, so that it gets chipped at the 
edges. This bird ranges from Assam to Borneo, 
and, it will be seen, has a curious flat grooved 
horn ; it also displays a remarkable sexual dif¬ 
ference, the hen being nearly all black with a 
bright blue bag - on the throat, while the cock 
has a chestnut-and-cream-coloured head, with 
a bright yellow throat-pouch. Generally speak¬ 
ing, however, there is but little sexual difference 
in this quaint and interesting family, but it is 
remarkable that several Asiatic Hornbills have 
reddish-brown heads in the males, and black 
ones in the females, while in at least two African 
species, as we have seen, the difference is the 
other way. Frank Finn. 
Nest of Robin. 
Photos by Mrs. J. New. 
