The evening times., 1900-10-19
New york Cotton Market.
THE RHINoCERos BIRD.
He Is n CarnivorouS Animal and Mu-
tiIates Cattle.
Rrom the London standard.l

From the 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 ridding cattle and horses
ot insect pests From the days of LIE
valiant down to our own times. travellers
nave written in their praise; and the ac-
count Of these birds and their habits is
one of the brightest bits OF description in
millais' Breath from the Veldt.' In ap-
probation OF their good offices they were
awarded special protection at the Inter
national Conference on the Preservation
OF Wild Animals in Africa. held in London
last May.
For some little time, however, it has
been doubted whether their usefulness had
not been overestimated. or, at any rate,
whether the good they did was not more
than counterbalanced by the injury infiict-
ed by them Oh domestic animals in prob
ing and deepening existing wounds. These
misgivings were strengthened when Lord
Phillips told US how the Arabs detes ed
the rhinoceros birds because they worried
the cameIs; and Eawker wrote of the So
malls driving them vay when they tried
to settle on the baggage ponies. Now d
much graver charge is brought against
them, backed up by convincing evidence,
at least so far as regards one part of Afri-
ca.
Prof. Ray Lankestcr has Just published a
letter from Captain Hinde, of the British
East African ProtectCrate, in which that
officer says that, owing to the destruction
of the native herds in Ukumbani by the
cattle plague. and the eating up Of the
sheep and goa.s in the famine, the birds
were deprived of their accustomed insect
| food In consequence of this they have be-
| come carnivoTous, and attack any domestic
| animal not constantly watched and pro-
| fectly healthy animals have had their ears
eaten, and holes torn in their backs and
flanl1s, by these birds with their large and
| powerful bills. This categorical statenen
| puts the alteration in their feeding habits
! beyond ali possible doubt and shows, in
| the words of Prof Lankester, that they
| are dangerous and noxious creatures at
: least in that part OF the pTotectorate Of
| which Captain Hinde writes.
| The change from insect food to
the flesh of living vertebrates is
| paralleled in the case of the kea
parrots of New Zealand, which for
nerly fed on the grubs that lived in
| the woolly tufts of a composite plant al
lied to the eudweed. Within recent years,
however, they have frequented sheep sta
i tions fer the sake of the offal from the
slaughter sheds Now they will xiii sheep
for themselves, digging down through skin
and flesh till they reach their favorite
| morsel. The change Of habits in the rhi-
| noeeros birds seems to have been brought
about by the scarcity of their ordinary
| rood, and in the kea parrots by the oppor-
| tunity of procuring new and toothsome
food with comparatively little trouble. II
! both cases human agency plays an imPor-
tant though indirect part, and the story Of
| the rhinoceros birds Is one more instance
of the influence of civilized man on a fauna
strange to the conditions which he bring;
IN his train.