File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17973184118).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo18amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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274 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOUBNAL would be left in the forest. The white man would never need to come into the wilderness. On the floor of the nest were the
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The male hornbill seals the knot-hole leading to the nest with a plaster of mud, except for a small opening (visible at the lower left corner). The female and ^ oung are imprisoned within, and are fed by the male through the small opening. Thus, in the free-standing columnar tree a stronghold is secured for the breed- ing female and defenseless young, to which nest-pilfering mon- keys, birds of prey, and even snakes can hardly gain access hard, black seeds of a large tree (Rici- nodendron Heudeloti Baillon), in such quantities that they helped to raise the level of the moist bottom. They had passed through the birds" digestive tract without any apparent change. Init when ()i)ened they dis- tinctly showed that the oil they contained had been extracted. Three of these seeds are enclosed in a capsule which, when ripe, drops off and automati- cally opens, scattering the seeds on the ground, where the hornbills are forced to collect them. This is a really perilous feat for the l)irds because they gather around the spot in such numl)ers and with such loud cries that the natives, informed of tlieir where- al)outs, find it a simple matter to entrap them in carefully set snares. There are TO species of h(>nil)ills (Bucerotidae),40 of them being found in tropical Asia and the East Indies, while the other 30 are found only in Africa. The birds in the group. Cerafogi/mna atrata Tern., lielong to the largest spe- cies among the hornbills of the West African rain forests. One usually sees tile l)irds in pairs, most fre(;uentlv in the highest tree tojis. rather avoiding the neigliborhood of vil- lages. Half a dozen or more may gather near cer- tain fruit-bearintf trees, making their presence known by the mournful, oft-repeated "whao .... whao . . . ."" for which the )\rantrbetu imitativelv calls

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