The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-23
THE RHINocERos BIRD FOUND our.
He Has Become a Carnivorous Animal
and MutiIates Cattle.
London Standard

London Standard
The rhinoceros birds OF Africa have long
enjoyed the reputation of being friends OF
man, by reason of the services they render
in Kidding cattle and horses of insect pests.
From the days of lie valiant down TO our
own times travellers have written in their
praise, and the account of these birds and
their habits is one of the brightest bits OF
description IN Millaiss Breath from the
Veidt. In appreciation OF their good Of
noes they We're awarded special protection
at the international conference on the
preservation OF wild animals in Africa,
held in London last May.
For some little time however, IL has been
doubted whether their usefulness had not
been overestimated or, at any rate. whether
the good they did was not more than coun-
terbalanced by the injury inflicted by them
on domestic animals In probing and deepen
ing existing wounds. These misgivings
were strengthened when Lord Phillips told
us how the Arabs detested the rhinoceros
birds because they worried the camels, and
Hawker wrote of the Somalis driving them
away when they tried 10 settle on the bag
gage ponies. Now much graver charge is
brought against them, backed up by con-
vlnclng evidence, at least so lar as regards
one part of Africa.
Professor Ray Lancaster has just pub
lished a letter from Captain Hinde, of the
British East Africa Protectorate, in which
that officer says that, owing to the destruc-
ton of the native herds in Ukumbani by
the cattle plague, and the eating up OF the
sheep and goats in the famine, the birds
were ueptiFeQ OF their aCCuStOmcQ insect
food. In consequence Of this they have
become carnivorous, and attack any domes-
tic animal not constantly watched and pro-
tected. Captain Hinde asserts that per-
fectly healthy animals have had their ears
eaten, and holes torn in their backs and
TANKS, by these birds with their large and
powerful bills. This categorical statement
puts the alteration in their feeding habits
beyond all possible doubt, and shows, in
the words of Professor Lancaster. that
they are dangerous and noxious creatures
at least in that part OF the protectorate of
which Captain Hinde writes.
This change of insect food to the flesh
of living vertebrates is paralleled in the
| case of the kea parrots of New Zealand,
| which formerly fed on the grubs that lived
| in the woolly tufts of composite plant
allied TO the cudweed. Within recent years,
however, they have frequented sheep sta
| tions for the sake of the offal from the
slaughter sheds. Now they will kill sheep
| for themselves, digging down through skin
| and flesh till they reach their favorite
morsel. The change of habits in the rhi-
noceros birds seems to have been brought
| about by the scarcity of their ordinary
| food, and in the kea parrots by the oppor-
tunity of procuring new and toothsome
| food with comparatively little trouble. In
| both cases human agency plays an i'm
portant though indirect part, and the story
OF the rhnoceros birds is one more instance
| of the influence of civilized man on a fauna
strange to the conditions which he brings
| in his train.