The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-02-18
The HOrnbill and TOucan.

The chief of the singular birds at the
Zoo" is kept in secluded cage and
can be seen only through the good Off
ces of his keeper and a fee. His Latin
name, particularly if it described half
his accomplishments, would be so long
that we pass it by and choose the more
prosaic title of hornbill. 1t is bird
with a body much like that of the eagle,
black and white in color. Its head is
| fitted with an enormous bill as large as
the human hand, sharp-pointed and
crowned with a horny plate as large as
a butter-dish, Mr.. Hornbilrs keeper
takes his stand ten feet away and losses
grapes at the bird so rapidly that the hui
man eye can hardly follow them through
the air. But the eye of the hornbill is
quicker, and he catches them every one
in his bill, now depressing it, now rails
ing it in air, and again turning it side
ways according to the angle at which
the grape is delivered to him; and when
half dozen grapes are shot at him in
succession as rapidly as the keeper can
do it, the bird usually misses but one.
If a grape were only baseball, the
hornbill could give points to the best of
our professional first basemen. The
hornbill and toucan (Which also has u
huge bill, sometimes ten inches long)
have funny way of feeding from the
ground. They pick up the food in the
extremities of their bills; then, with
toss of the head, open the mouth, and
the food describes the arc of a circle fall
ing into the gullet with absolute
certainty. Some years ago under
the hornbilrs perch was found what
looked like fig enclosing mass of
slightly digested grapes and other food.
1t was supposed for time that the bird
had disgorged its own stomach. The
fig-liks mass was passed over to the dis
secter of the Geological Society, and Mr..
Hornbill was watched carefully for any
ill effects. Presently the bird, which
meantime had kept as well as usual,
threw up its stomach again, and ere
long the dissecter reported that what
seemed a stomach was only an inner lin
ing formed by thick secretion, the dis
gorging of which was a natural function
of the bird. Soon after it was found that
other birds in the Zoo had the same
curious habit. 1t seems that the horn
bill, of which there are altogether some
six species living in Africa, Hindostan
and Burmah, have singular way of
nesting, of which the habit above describ-
ed is an incident. The male takes the
female to hollow tree. There the
motherhood builds nest of her own
feathers and lays her eggs. Then the
mail builds up the hole with clay, and
keeps his mate close prisoner until the
eggs are Matched. In the clay is left
small hole, through which the female
protrudes her bill, and the male bird
keeps her well provided with dainties,
gathering them in his stomach and then
disgorging them in the pouch mentioned
above. If the female breaks down the
clayey barrier the male instantly kills
her. During the period of incubation
the labors of the male make him so weak
and sickly that he often yields to any
sudden change of weather and dies. But
the female wakes fat as Thanksgiving
turkey on her lords devotion, and the
natives often seek her out when on her
nest and kill her as a great delicacy.-
London Cor. N. Y. Post