RAREST BIRDS FOR ZOO

Evening Star, Issue 20140, 3 April 1929, Page 6

RAREST BIRDS FOR ZOO

CAPTORS’ STRANGE ADVENTURES The birds and animals are so unused to seeing water that after capture they fail to recognise it when it is introduced into their cages, and it is the hardest thing to get them to drink. When they begin, however, it is equally difficult to get them to stop. , A large collection of ornithological rareties, many of which have never before been caught alive, lias .been brought to England by Mr C. S. \Vcbb, ; the well-known collector, and his brother, who have returned from their second expedition to Portuguese East Africa (states the ‘Morning Post’). The Zoological Society has purchased a number of these specimens, among which the most interesting are a pair, of trumpeter hornbills, a Cape thicknee, and some rare weaverbirds.

The district south of the. Zambesi,which Mr Webb visited, is eighty miles from the toast, and is one of the hottest spots in the world. Practically no rain falls between April and December, and there is so little water that there is a complete absence of mosquitos during this dry season. Most of the. birds which Mr Webb has brought back live in the dry forests of that region, and are exceedingly difficult to catch owing to the enormous height of the trees in which they liveThe trumpeter hornbills, which are about the size,of crows, arc black, and are provided with largo armoured beaks. They live in groups in the forest, and can* bo located by their cry, which is hardly distinguishable from the bleat of a goat. Mr Webb regards these birds as being unusually intelligent. The trees upon which they feed are very few and far between, and the fruit upon them does not ripen all at once, but these birds, have such retentive memories that they, fly many miles with unerring accuracy, from one fruit-bearing tree to another, and never seem to hunt for their Rod.

Jt was only after observing these regular habits for some time that Mr Webb was able to capture four specimens of this interesting bird by means of nets and birdlime. Like most other hornbills, they make their nest in a. hole in a tree. When this is complete the female enters ami is sealed up by the male with a kimli of plaster-like' substance which closely imitates the appearance of the bark of the tree. Only a very small slit is left, through which the male feeds the female during the incubation period. Mr Webb considers that this habit of scaling 'up the female is no doubt a protection against the vermin with which these forests 'abound. The hou bird watches the slit intently, and any intruder receives a sledge-hamnny-liko blow from her powerful beak. Air Webb found a bird sitting on one of these nests in a tree on an arid hillside fully exposed to the blazing sun. At some risk to himself he broke open the plaster doorway, to find that the hen bird was so overcome by heat that it took several days_ to bring Iter hack to her normal condition. She had been almost conked on her nest, and her eggs were almost hard-boiled. In 'catching the weaverbirds Air Webb had another curious experience. Mo had caught several in nets on tln» ground under the trees in the forest. A green free snake, attracted by the fluttering birds, had dropped from a, bough upon what it imagined would be an easy prey. When, however, -Jr AVebb arrived io lake up his catch ho found that one of the birds had decapitated the snake with iis powerful beak, and was pocking vigorously at fho writhing, headless body