GREAT HORNBILL.
The food of the Hornbills consists principally of fruits, but under certain circumstances they become to a great extent omnivorous, and will devour anything, some of the species searching the ground for Lizards, which they devour readily, both when wild and in confinement; and the Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros malabaricus) is stated by Mr. Inglis to be very fond of live fish, which it catches in shallow pools. The way he discovered this predilection for an abnormal diet was as follows: he possessed a tame Otter and three tame Hornbills; at feeding time the Otter was placed in a tub containing live fish, and these, when closely pressed, would jump out to escape from their pursuer, and were immediately swallowed by the Hornbills. Mr. Inglis has also found bones of fish in the stomachs of birds which he had shot; and the natives of the Naga Hills affirm that when these Hornbills are intent on fishing they can be approached sufficiently close to be killed by a stick.
By far the most curious habit belonging to these birds is that which takes place during the breeding season, when the male bird plasters the female into a hollow tree, there to hatch her eggs, nor does he release her until the young ones are nearly full grown. It is scarcely possible to conceive a practice more detrimental to the well-being of any bird than this. The exertion of feeding himself as well as his wife and nestlings must entail a serious strain upon the male, while the destruction of the latter must inevitably ensure the starvation of the female and of the young birds. This curious habit has been well attested by observers in Asia as well as in Africa; and the writer once received from an old negro collector on the West Coast of Africa, who rejoiced in the name of St. Thomas David Aubinn, and styled himself “Royal Hunter to the King of Denkera,” an adult female of the Black Hornbill (Sphagolobus atratus), together with a nearly full-grown young one, which, he said, had been taken by him together out of the hole of a tree; and the habits of the Hornbill in this respect were given by him in the following words: “When the female go to sit, the male he her shut in tree. If he no bring food, then she angry. If he no then bring food, then she more angry—swear. If he no then bring food, then she curse him for die. Man—beef—beefy—beef!”
If the last sentence is intended to represent the enraged Hornbill, it is evident that the noises produced by the bird are not of that startling character ascribed to the Eastern species by Wallace, as mentioned above. All accounts seem to agree that the female is shut in the hollow of a tree; but Dr. Kirk noted an exception, on native authority, and therefore one which must be confirmed by future research. This is the Crested Hornbill (Bycanistes cristatus), which is a common bird on the river Shiré, where it goes in large flocks, and roosts regularly in the same places. “The natives say that the female hatches her eggs in a hole underground, in which she is fastened by the male.” Our astonishment at the imprisonment of the female Hornbill is not lessened when it is found that the male bird keeps her supplied with food by a most curious process, which accounts for the statement of Dr. Livingstone[275]:—“The first time I saw this bird was at Kolobeng, where I had gone to the forest for some timber. Standing by a tree, a native looked behind me and exclaimed, ‘There is the nest of Korwe.’ I saw a slit only, about half an inch wide and three or four inches long, in a slight hollow of a tree. Thinking the word Korwe denoted some small animal, I waited with interest to see what he would extract. He broke the clay which surrounded the slit, put his arm into the hole, and brought out a Tockus, or Red-beaked Hornbill, which he killed. He informed me that when the female enters her nest she submits to a real confinement. The male plasters up the entrance, leaving only a narrow slit by which to feed his mate, and which exactly suits the form of his beak. The female makes a nest, of her own feathers, lays her eggs, hatches them, and remains with the young till they are fully fledged. During all this time, which is stated to be two or three months, the male continues to feed her and the young family. The prisoner generally becomes quite fat, and is esteemed a very dainty morsel by the natives; while the poor slave of a husband gets so lean that on the sudden lowering of the temperature, which sometimes happens after a fall of rain, he is benumbed, falls down, and dies.” At a meeting of the Zoological Society on the 25th February, 1869, Mr. A. D. Bartlett produced a curious envelope, which had been thrown by a Wrinkled Hornbill (Anorrhinus corrugatus) in the Zoological Gardens of London, which was found to contain plums or grapes well packed together; and Mr. Bartlett came to the conclusion that it was by means of fruit packed together in such a wrapper that the male fed the female during her confinement in the hollow tree. In 1874, Dr. Murie exhibited to the same society some similar envelopes, or, as he more properly called them, gizzard sacs, which had been thrown up by a specimen of Sclater’s Hornbill (Bycanistes subcylindricus) in the same way as by the previous bird. On examination, these gizzard sacs proved to be the interior lining of the bird’s stomach; and it was evident, from the short time that elapsed between the throwing up of the envelopes, that, as Dr. Murie observed, the bird in the interval had made a new one, and got rid of it also, without apparently being any the worse. One can readily imagine, however, that this process, being continued during the long period that the female is shut up in the bole of the tree, must tend greatly to weaken the bird. The habit of feeding his mate seems to be inherent in every Hornbill, even in captivity, for Mr. Bartlett observes:—“The tame male Hornbill is particularly distinguished at all seasons by this habit of throwing up his food, which he not only offers to the female, but to the keepers and others who are known to him. The male Concave Hornbill (Buceros cavatus) now in the Gardens will frequently throw up grapes, and, holding them in the point of the bill, thrust them into the mouth of the keeper, if he is not on the alert to prevent or avoid this distinguished mark of his kindness.”
Mr. Wallace thus describes the habits of the Hornbills, as observed by him during his travels in the East, and he points out certain peculiarities, proving that the old systematic position of these birds near the Toucans of America is erroneous:—“From an examination of the structure of the feet and toes, and from a consideration of their habits, we are led to conclude that the Hornbills are Fissirostral birds, though of a very abnormal form. Their very short legs and united toes, with a broad flat sole, are exactly similar to those of the Kingfishers. They have powerful wings, but their heavy bodies oblige them to use much exertion in flight, which is not therefore very rapid, though often extended to considerable distances. They are (in the Indian Archipelago, at least) entirely frugivorous, and it is curious to observe how their structure modifies their mode of feeding. They are far too heavy to dart after the fruit in the manner of the Trogons; they cannot even fly quickly from branch to branch, picking up a fruit here and a fruit there; neither have they strength or agility enough to venture on the more slender branches with the Pigeons and Barbets; but they alight heavily on a branch of considerable thickness, and then, looking cautiously round them, pick off any fruits that may be within reach, and jerk them down their throats by a motion similar to that used by the Toucans, which has been erroneously described as throwing the fruit up in the air before swallowing it. When they have gathered all within their reach they move sideways along the branch by short jumps, or, rather, a kind of shuffle, and the smaller species even hop across to other branches, when they again gather what is within their reach. When in this way they have progressed as far as the bough will safely carry them, they take a flight to another part of the tree, where they pursue the same course. It thus happens that they soon exhaust all the fruit within their reach; and long after they have left a tree the Barbets and Eurylaimi find abundance of food on the slender branches and extreme twigs. We see, therefore, that their very short legs and syndactyle feet remove them completely from the vicinity of the Toucans, in which the legs are actively employed in moving about after their food. Their wings, too, are as powerful as those of the Toucans are weak; and it is only the great weight of their bodies that prevents them from being capable of rapid and extensive flight. As it is, their strength of wing is shown by the great force with which they beat the air, producing a sound, in the larger species, which can be distinctly heard a mile off, and is even louder than that made by the flight of the great Muscovy Duck.” Mr. Wallace[276] also describes the capture of a young Hornbill in Sumatra:—“I returned to Palembang by water, and while staying a day at a village while a boat was being made water-tight, I had the good fortune to obtain a male, female, and young bird of one of the large Hornbills. I had sent my hunters to shoot, and while I was at breakfast they returned, bringing me a fine large male of the Buceros bicornis, which one of them assured me he had shot while feeding the female, which was shut up in a hole in a tree. I had often read of this curious habit, and immediately returned to the place, accompanied by several of the natives. After crossing a stream and a bog, we found a large tree leaning over some water, and on its lower side, at a height of about twenty feet, appeared a small hole, and what looked like a quantity of mud, which I was assured had been used in stopping up the large hole. After a while we heard the harsh cry of a bird inside, and could see the white extremity of its beak put out. I offered a rupee to any one who would go up and get out the bird, with the egg or young one, but they all declared it was too difficult, and they were afraid to try. I therefore very reluctantly came away. In about an hour afterwards, much to my surprise, a tremendous loud, hoarse screaming was heard, and the bird was brought me, together with a young one, which had been found in the hole. This was a most curious object, as large as a pigeon, but without a particle of plumage on any part of it. It was exceedingly plump and soft, and with a semi-transparent skin, so that it looked more like a bag of jelly, with head and feet stuck on, than like a real bird.”
One genus of these Hornbills is so remarkable as to demand a special notice.
THE GROUND HORNBILLS (Bucorax).
GROUND HORNBILLS OF ABYSSINIA.
These are an African form, of which there are two or three kinds, distinguished by the casque, which is open in the birds from Abyssinia, compressed and shut in the South African species (B. cafer). Of the habits of the latter bird several accounts have been written, from which a few extracts are made; and the first is from a letter sent by Mr. Henry Bowker to Mr. Layard, after the publication of the latter’s “Birds of South Africa”[277]:—“There are many superstitions connected with the ‘Bromvogel.’ The bird is held sacred by the Kaffirs, and is killed only in times of severe drought, when one is killed by order of the ‘rain-doctor,’ and its body thrown into a pool in a river. The idea is that the bird has so offensive a smell that it will ‘make the water sick,’ and that the only way of getting rid of this is to wash it away to the sea, which can only be done by heavy rains and flooding of the river. The ground where they feed is considered good for cattle, and in settling in a new country, spots frequented by these birds are chosen by the wealthy people. Should the birds, however, by some chance, fly over a cattle kraal, the kraal is moved to some other place. They are mostly found in groups of from three to six or seven, and build their nests in hollow trees, or in the hollow formed by three or four branches striking off from the same spot. They roost in tall yellow-wood trees, and commence calling about daylight. I never saw one eating carrion, as stated in your book, though I have frequently seen them near the bones of dead cattle, picking up beetles and worms. They will eat meat, mice, and small birds, and swallow them by throwing them suddenly in the air, and letting them drop down the throat in falling. I once had a tame one, and noticed this particularly. It is very weak on the wing, and when required by the ‘doctor,’ the bird is caught by the men of a number of kraals turning out at the same time, and a particular bird is followed from one hill to another by those on the look-out. After three or four flights it can be run down and caught by a good runner.”