ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE HORNBILLS
African Wedge-tailed Hornbills
The African region is also the home of a number belonging to the wedge-tailed group, among them Lophoceros, which is not only the largest genus, embracing no less than nineteen species, but contains the smallest of the Hornbills.
They may be known by the moderate, curved bill, which is with or without a small, keel-shaped casque, while the tail is only moderately wedge-shaped and the head provided with a low crest of soft feathers; the plumage is white below but variously marked above. Perhaps the smallest known species is the Hartlaub's Hornbill (L. hartlaubi) of West Africa, sometimes separated as the type of a separate genus (Horizocerus), which is only fifteen inches long; it is blackish gray above and dark gray below.
Considerably larger is the Red-billed Hornbill (L. erythrorhynchus) of Northeast and Northwest Africa, which may be known by the dark red bill. This species, as well as others of its relatives, seeks most of its food, which consists of fruit and insects, on the ground. Another species is the Yellow-billed Hornbill (L. flavirostris), so called from its orange-yellow bill, and which Mr. Andersson says is a common bird in Damara Land, where it is”found singly or in pairs, and being a comparatively fearless bird is easily killed, especially during the heat of the day, when it invariably perches on or near the top of a lofty tree, and will remain for hours in this situation, keeping up, with short intermissions, a kind of subdued chattering note of toe toe toe tocke tocke tocke toe, in a tone not unlike the quick yelping of young puppies, and accompanied at intervals by a flapping and raising of its wings and alternately lowering and erecting its head.”An allied species is the White-crested Hornbill (Ortholophus albocristatus) of West Africa from the Cameroons to the Congo.
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