heads and most vulnerable parts. Their call, which consists of but
one note repeated, a deep and sonorous coo-coo, may be heard at a
great distance j I have myself heard it, under favourable circumstances,
at a distance of nearly two miles. The call of the female is exactly
the same coo-coo, only pitched one note higher than the male. The
latter invariably calls first, the female immediately answering, and
they continue this for perhaps five or ten minutes, every now and
then, as they are feeding. Their flight is heavy, and when disturbed,
although very shy, they seldom fly more than half a mile before they
alight again. At a distance they would easily be mistaken for
Turkeys, their body being deep and rather compressed, similarly to
those birds, with the wings carried well on the back. The little
pouch on the throat they are able to fill with air at pleasure, the
male bird sent by me to London doing this before he died. I think
their principal range of country is on the coast, and from twenty to
thirty miles inland. They roost on trees at night,, but always feed
on the ground.”
In his essay on Transvaal ornithology the same gentleman continues
:—“ There are two or three kinds of land-tortOise in the
district of the river Limpopo which are eaten and much esteemed by
the natives, and also fully appreciated by the large Hornbill, which
attacks the tortoise and very neatly picks every atom of flesh from
the unhappy reptile, eating also the legs and head and leaving the
entire shell without damage. I could not at first imagine what it
could be which thus destroyed the tortoises without injuring their
shell; but the Caffres assured me that it was the large Hornbill
during the summer months, when the tortoises are out in numbers.”
In the Zambesi region, Dr. Kirk says that it is “ widely spread,
but nowhere plentiful, and difficult to obtain, being shy, feeding bn
the ground in the open plains or in a forest. Occurs singly, but
more frequently in pairs or in flocks of five or six. A specimen is in
Dr. Dickerson's collection.” Mr. Andersson also found it common
in Ondonga, but very wild, and he also observed it sparingly in the
desert near the Okavango.
He gives the following note on its habits :—“ The ground seems
to be the chief resort of these birds, and I have seen them running at
a tremendous rate; but they also perch on trees when flushed.
They utter at times an incessant kind of booming cry, which may
be heard a long way off. They are generally seen in small flocks of
from three to six individuals.
“ The Ovampos seem to have a superstition about this curious bird,
which I cannot fathom. On asking Chijkongo, for instance, to get
me the* eggs, he said it was not to be done, as they were soft to
the touch, and would fall in pieces on the least handling!”
Senor Anchieta records it as plentiful at Humbe on the Gunene
River, where it is called ‘ Mucungungo' by the natives. He has also
sent it from Quillengues in Mossamedes.
A very good account of the habits of the Ground Hornbill is given
by Mr. Monteiro in his paper on the birds of Angola. (Ibis, 1862,
p. 38.)
This species is distinguished by its large size and compressed,
casque. Total length of wing about 19 inches. The colour is black
all over, with the exception of the primaries, which are white. Mr.
Ayres states that the iris is very light brown, the legs and the bill
black, the bare skin of the'neck and round the eye bright red; the
female is said to have the bare parts blue. Senor Anchieta who has
forwarded several specimens to the Lisbon Museum, gives the following
account of the soft parts :—“ The region round the eye, the neck
and pouch on the throat, are yellowish, more or less mixed with
orange or red. One of the females has a large spot of blue-black
on the gular pouch, and in two other birds of the same sex, there is
plainly observable an elongated spot of dark blue on each side of the
neck, below the angle of the lower mandible. The young bird has
these parts of a yellowish red without any mixture of blue.” For
figures of the heads of all the African Ground Hornbills see the paper
by Professor Barbosa du Bocage (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 698.)
Fig. Levaill. Ois. d’Afr. pis. 230, 231, 232.
117. B u c e r o s b u c c i n a t o r . Trumpeter Hornbill.
By no means a common species in collections. Yictorin met with
it at the Knysna in June and July, and it has been forwarded to us
by Mr. Henry Bowker, who procured it in the Transkei country.
His sister, Mrs. Barber, informs me that it “ is a very wild and shy
bird, and difficult to shoot.” It has been procured in Natal by Mr.
Gueinzius, and regarding its occurrence in the Zambesi, Dr. Kirk
writes as follows:—“ Rather common both in the mountains and