Cassell's book of birds; vol. 3Brehm, Alfred Edmund
Science
Cassell's book of birds; vol. 3
Brehm, Alfred Edmund
Birds
that the clamour made by a wounded bird is perfectly amazing. 'I cannot,'
says he, 'liken this vehement vociferation to anything but the braying
of a jackass; its power is extraordinary, and is the consequence of an
unusually osseous structure of the rings of the trachea.' The Homray flies
with more repeated flappings of its wings than the other Hornbills, only
in general sailing just before alighting on a tree. The noise of its wings
can be heard more than a mile distant. Like the others, it builds in holes
in large trees; the male builds the female in, by covering the hole where
she incubates with mud (Baker says with its ordure), leaving only room
for her bill to protrude and receive food from his. This, Major Trikell,
whose words I quote, has seen with his own eyes. Mason, in his work on
Burmah, makes the following statement:--'The female must sit during her
incubation, for if she breaks through the enclosure her life pays the
forfeit; but, to compensate for the loss of freedom, her spirited mate
is ever on the watch to gratify his dainty mistress, who compels him to
bring all her viands unbroken, for if a fig or other fruit be injured she
will not touch it.' This account, I must own, I regard as a native story,
and improbable. Fruit forms the only food of this, as of other Indian
Hornbills, and it always seizes it whole, tossing it in the air before
swallowing it, and catching it again in its mouth. Mr. Elliot remarks of
this species that a small sac is placed at the root of the tail, in which
is a bundle or pencil of short bristles, forming a brush, from whence
exudes a yellow oily secretion, with which the birds appear to dress their
white wing-feathers. When first shot the yellow colour comes off the
bill in considerable quantities, and the only parts of the body besides
that are stained with this colour are the white wing-spot, the rump, and
the small crest at the back of the head, this latter but slightly. The
yellow substance continued to exude from the brush long after my prepared
specimen was dry. The Garuda, as this species is also called, is sacred to
Vishnu among the inhabitants of the forests."
[Illustration: THE HOMRAY (_Dichoceros bicornis_).]
THE DJOLAN, OR YEAR BIRD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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