GUARDIAN BIRDS. 
425 
SPUR-WINGKD CIIAUNA DEFENDING CHICKENS. 
Altliougli a very dignified bird, the .sec¬ 
retary is willing, if well treated, to lend 
itself to the service of man in a more me¬ 
nial capacity than that of snake-killer. 
It readily becomes domesticated, and looks 
after the poultry-yard with great care, 
governing mildly but firmly, and driving 
away or swallowing all intruders. The 
predatory rat or harmless garden snake 
enters the poultiy-yard only to find a 
grave. Nor may the fowls indulge in 
unseemly altercation. The first intima¬ 
tion of a quarrel brings the secretary upon 
the scene, and the brawlers are at once 
separated. 
It should be remarked that the secreta¬ 
ry-bird is no triller. He feels that the 
laborer is worthy of his hire. His hire 
is the gratification of a large appetite. 
Pay him or he jiays himself. He will ab¬ 
stain from chickens in your interest, but 
will not hesitate to take them in his own. 
It might be well now to turn from the 
snake-eaters were it not that tiierc still 
remains a bird of this kind in which the 
guardianship idea is so dominant that he 
carries its operation to an unwarrantable 
limit. This is the hornbill, a native of 
northern Africa and southern Asia. All 
of the species do not practice snake-kill¬ 
ing, but a few of them do, and even go so 
far as to .seek out the female snake as she 
lies coiled about her eggs, and first kill¬ 
ing her, devour her eggs. 
We say, “charity begins at home.'’ 
The hornbill, with a stronger emphasis, 
says, “guardiaiLship begins at home.” 
He provides a hole in a tree, and then 
practically says to his wife, “Go in there; 
make your nest as best you can; lay your 
eggs; keep them warm; hatch your little 
ones; I will feed you.” The good wife 
obeys, and the husband at once gathers 
mud and plasters up the hole, leaving only 
an aperture large enough to admit the 
imprisoned lady's beak. 
The hornbill is worthy of a description 
if ever a bird were, and while the mud is 
being laid about the nest there will be 
time to describe the grotesque creature. 
The body is rather slender, the neck mod¬ 
erately long, the head .short, tlie legs short, 
and the wings short. In mo.st of the spe¬ 
cies the coloring is mixed sombre and 
gray, making a striking contrast. They 
vary in size, sometimes, as in the case of 
the rhinoceros hornbill, lieing as many as 
four and a half feet long, and ujiward of 
two feet in spread of the conqiaratively 
.short wings. The voice, like that of the 
jackass, is, when first heard, or suddenly 
heard at any time, .startling and awesome. 
In sound it is not unlike that of the ])a- 
tient (inadrui)ed, combined with the noise 
of esca])ing steam from a locomotive. 
The beak, usually of a deej) red color, 
is an extraordinary feature of this gener¬ 
ally odd bird. In some species it is a foot 
