XXVIII 
BEAKS 
343 
The Grround Hornbill (Bucorvus) differs from the 
arboreal species (Buceros) in several points. In size 
and general appearance it resembles a turkey, indeed 
English settlers in Africa often call it the turkey 
buzzard.” It has longer legs and shorter toes than the 
tree specues ; it runs along the ground and does not hop. 
It differs from other hornbills in having its casque open 
in front. Bucorvus can fly when necessary. This bird 
feeds on small reptiles, tortoises, insects, and everything 
that crawls : also roots, fruits, and berries. Like Buceros 
it tosses dainty bits in the air before swallowing them. 
In captivity ground hornbills make delightful pets ; 
their eyelids bear eyelashes which are really modified 
feathers, and when they screw up the eyelids and quiz 
onlookers and bystanders, the effect is very comic, and 
often weirdly human. 
These birds are heavy on the wing and when flying 
produce a sound like a small steam-engine. Among 
trees they shuffle along the branches and resemble 
in awkwardness a scullery maid at a ball. Ground 
hornbills go about in small groups, and roost at night 
in trees, and, though little is known of their breeding 
habits, it is probable that they build in the flat crown of 
a tree where the trunk has decayed away, or actually 
in a hole (Stark). 
The Whale-headed Stork or Shoe-bill, is an extra¬ 
ordinary bird : in 1860 two living examples were 
brought to England by Petherick and exhibited in the 
Zoological Gardens. They were obtained from the 
Upper Nile. It is a gaunt bluish-grey bird, four feet 
in height and possesses the biggest bill of any living 
bird : it is yellow with dusky mottlings and not unlike 
the head of a whale, but the Arabs liken its head and 
jaws to an Arabian shoe and call it the “ Father of a 
Shoe.” This bird feeds chiefly on fishes. Whale-headed 
storks are grotesque looking objects as they stand 
alone or in pairs among the rushes on the shores of 
broad rivers, marshes, inlets of lakes, and backwaters. 
