Identifier: royalnaturalhist47lyde (find matches)
Title: The royal natural history
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915 Sclater, Philip Lutley, 1829-1913 Frostick, W. B., former owner. DSI Brooks, W. T., former owner. DSI
Subjects: Zoology Natural history
Publisher: London and New York : Frederick Warne & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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rnbill (B. cafer) from South Africa, extending on the west toAnsfola, and on the east to the Pangani Piver and even as far as the Sukcountry in Equatoria. These two species differ in the form of tlie cas(jue, that ofthe Abyssinian bird being very evidently open in front, while the South Africanspecies has the casque closed, or nearly so. The Abyssinian form measuresupwards of 8^ feet in length, with a wing of 24 inches, and has the entire plumageblack, excepting the primary quills, which are wliite. Jhe bill and casque are 62 PICARIAN BIRDS. black, with a red patch on the lower mandible, and the feet are dusky black;while the bare parts of the face are red, with the exception of the naked skinround the eye and on the middle of the throat, which is blue. The female hasthe bare skin of the throat and region of the eye purple. In North-EasternAfrica this hornbill is said to be found in the wooded steppes and on themountains up to a height of four thousand feet, though more common between
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ABYSSINIAN GROUND-HORNBILL (i Uat. size). one and two thousand feet. After the breeding-season they assemble in smallflocks, when as many as ten or a dozen are seen together. Of the habits of theSouth African ground-hornbill more is recorded. Known to the Boers as thebromvogel, this species is regarded as a fetich among many of the native tribes,being a rain-omen with the Kaffirs, who believe that if one of these hornbills iskilled there will be rain for a long time, and who, therefore, in times of droughtwill throw one of the birds into a vley, in order that rain may follow.Colonel Bowker says that the bird is so offensive that the native idea is HORNBILLS. 63 that the throwing of its body into the water will make the river sick, andthat the only way of getting rid of this is to wash it away to the sea, which canonly be done by heavy rains and flooding of the river. These hornbills seem tobe practically omnivorous, and devour great numbers of beetles, worms, mice, smallbirds, etc. Th

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