CHAPTER XII.

_ROLLERS, KINGFISHERS, HORNBILLS, AND HOOPOES._

Crow-like birds of brilliant coloration, the ROLLERS have earned their name from the habit of occasionally rolling or turning over in their flight, after the manner of tumbler-pigeons. One species at least visits Britain occasionally, only to be shot down at once by the insatiable pot-hunter and collector of rare birds. They are birds of wide distribution, occurring over the greater part of the Old World, and, as we have already remarked, of brilliant coloration, blue and green, varied with reddish, being the predominating colours. As with all birds of beautiful plumage, they are subjected to much persecution, thousands upon thousands being killed every year in India alone, to supply the demands made by milliners for the decoration of ladies' hats.

Rollers frequent forest country, and travel in pairs or in small companies: some species are entirely insectivorous; others eat also reptiles, frogs, beetles, worms, and grain. Four or five white eggs are laid in a nest made of roots, grass, hair, and feathers, and built in walls, under the eaves of buildings, or in holes of trees or banks.

Equally beautiful as a whole, and far more widely known, are the KINGFISHERS. But just as the common cuckoo has come to overshadow the rest of its tribe, so the COMMON KINGFISHER eclipses all its congeners. For centuries a wealth of fable, held together by a modicum of fact, served to secure for this bird a peculiar interest; whilst to-day, though shorn of much of the importance with which these fables had invested it, this kingfisher is still esteemed one of the most interesting and beautiful of its tribe.

Green and blue are the predominating colours of its upper- and bright chestnut-red of its under-surface; but owing to structural peculiarities of the feathers of the upper-parts, the reflection of the green and blue areas changes with the direction of the light from which the bird is viewed, in the same way that the peacock's train-feathers change according as the light falls upon them.

As is the rule where both sexes are brilliantly coloured, this bird breeds in a hole, which in the present species is generally excavated in the bank of a stream, but sometimes in an old gravel-pit or chalk-pit, a mile or even more from the water. Occasionally the crumbling soil under the roots of an old tree affords sufficient shelter. No nest is made, although what is equivalent to a nest is ultimately formed from the bird's habit of ejecting the indigestible parts of its food on to the floor of the space in which the eggs are laid. In course of time this becomes a cup-shaped structure; but whether, as Professor Newton remarks, by the pleasure of the bird or the moisture of the soil, or both, is unknown. With care the nest may be removed entire, but the slightest jar reduces the whole to the collection of fish-bones and crustacean skeletons of which it was originally composed. There is a tradition, not yet extinct, to the effect that these "nests" are of great pecuniary value, and scarcely a year passes without the authorities at the British Museum being offered such a treasure, at prices varying from a few pounds to a hundred. The nest-chamber is approached by a tunnel sloping upwards, and varying from 8 inches to 3 feet in length, terminating in a chamber some 6 inches in diameter, in which the eggs are laid. These, from six to eight in number, have a pure white, shining shell, tinged with a most exquisite pink colour, which is lost when the eggs are blown.

The young seem to be reared under very unsanitary conditions, for the ejected fish-bones and other hard parts are not reserved entirely for the nest, but gradually distributed along the tunnel approaching it; later, fish brought for the young, but dropped on the way, and the fluid excreta of the parents are added, forming a dripping, fetid mass swarming with maggots. The young, on leaving the nest, are at first tenderly fed and cared for by the parents, but towards the end of the summer seem to be driven away to seek new fishing-grounds for themselves.

Of the many legends that have grown up around this bird, some are well worth repeating. Specially interesting is one related by Professor Newton on the authority of the French naturalist Rolland. This has it that the kingfisher was originally a plain grey bird, and acquired its present bright colours by flying towards the sun on its liberation from Noah's ark, when its upper-surface assumed the hue of the sky above it, and its lower plumage was scorched by the heat of the setting sun to the tint it now bears. Not a few virtues were also attributed to this bird. Its dried body would, it was believed, avert thunder-bolts, or, kept in a wardrobe, preserve from moths the woollen stuffs contained therein, whilst, hung by a thread from the ceiling of a room, it would serve like the more conventional weather-cock to point the direction of the prevailing wind.

Persecuted though it is, the kingfisher is by no means a rare bird in England, and those who will may generally see it by the banks of some slowly flowing stream or lake, or even shallow brook, sometimes even by the seashore. It feeds upon small aquatic insects and crustacea and small fishes, sometimes even, it is said, upon leeches. Perched on some bough overhanging the water, or stump or railing on the bank, it watches patiently, silent and motionless. The moment its prey comes within striking distance it plunges down upon it, disappearing for a moment beneath the surface, to appear the next with its capture in its beak. If this be a fish, it is held crosswise, and borne upwards to the station from which the plunge was made, there to be stunned by a few sharp blows, tossed into the air, dexterously caught, and swallowed head-foremost. At times, however, perhaps when hunger presses, more activity in the capture of food is displayed, the bird hovering suspended over the water, after the custom of the kestrel-hawk.

Although essentially fish-eating birds, a considerable number live far removed from water, obtaining a livelihood by the capture of insects in forest regions, whilst some appear to feed mainly on reptiles. These are known as Wood-kingfishers, to distinguish them from the Water-kingfishers, the typical member of which group has been just described.

Of the WOOD-KINGFISHERS, or KINGHUNTERS, as they are also called, the most beautiful are the RACKET-TAILED KINGFISHERS, so called from the fact that the two middle tail-feathers are produced into two long rods, terminating in a spoon-shaped enlargement. Although represented by no less than twenty distinct species, they have a somewhat limited range, being found only in the Moluccas, New Guinea, and Northern Australia. One of the handsomest of all is the one occurring in Amboina, an island in the Malay Archipelago, where it was discovered by Mr. A. R. Wallace. The bill, he tells us, is coral-red, the under-surface pure white, the back and wings deep purple, while the shoulders, head, and nape, and some spots on the upper part of the back and wings, are pure azure-blue. The tail is white, narrowly edged with blue. These birds live upon insects and small land-mollusca, which they dart down upon and pick up from the ground just as the fish-eating species pick up a fish.

Of the forest-haunting species, however, the best known is probably the large and, for a kingfisher, dull-coloured LAUGHING-JACKASS, or SETTLER'S CLOCK, of Australia. Its food is of a very mixed character--small mammals, reptiles, insects, and crabs being devoured with equal relish. Since it is not seldom to be seen bearing off a snake in its bill, it may be regarded as a useful bird--supposing, of course, the snake to be of a poisonous variety. A good idea of the bird in its native haunts is given by the late Mr. Wheelwright. "About an hour before sunrise," he writes, "the bushman is awakened by the most discordant sounds, as if a troop of fiends were shouting, whooping, and laughing around him in one wild chorus. This is the morning song of the 'laughing-jackass,' warning his feathered mates that daybreak is at hand. At noon the same wild laugh is heard, and as the sun sinks into the west it again rings through the forest. I shall never forget the first night I slept in the open bush in this country. It was in the Black Forest. I woke about daybreak after a confused sleep, and for some minutes I could not remember where I was, such were the extraordinary sounds that greeted my ears: the fiendish laugh of the jackass, the clear, flute-like notes of the magpie, the hoarse cackle of the wattle-birds ... and the screaming of thousands of parrots as they dashed through the forest, all giving chorus, formed one of the most extraordinary concerts I have ever heard, and seemed, at the moment, to have been got up for the purpose of welcoming the stranger to this land of wonders on that eventful morning. I have heard it hundreds of times since, but never with the same feelings that I listened to it then. The laughing-jackass is the bushman's clock, and being by no means shy, of a companionable nature, and a constant attendant on the bush-tent and a destroyer of snakes, is regarded, like the robin at home, as a sacred bird in the Australian forests. It is an uncouth-looking bird ... nearly the size of a crow, of a rich chestnut-brown and dirty white colour, the wings slightly chequered with light blue, after the manner of the British jay. The tail-feathers are long, rather pointed, and barred with brown.... It is a common bird in all the forest throughout the year, breeds in the hole of a tree, and the eggs are white."

Whilst the Kingfishers are remarkable for the wondrous beauty of their coloration, the HORNBILLS, their allies, attract our attention rather by the grotesqueness of their shape, due to the enormous size of the bill, and the still more remarkable horny excrescences which surmount it in not a few species, forming what is known as a "casque." Absent in some of the smaller and possibly more primitive forms, its gradual development may be traced, beginning with a series of corrugations along the ridge of the base of the bill, gradually increasing, to form, in the most extreme cases, huge superstructures of quaint shapes, and apparently of great solidity. As a matter of fact, however, these casques are practically hollow, save in the case of the HELMET-HORNBILL of the Malay countries, in which the horny sheath is backed by solid supports of bone, whilst the front of the sheath itself is of great thickness and surprising density, and is used by the natives for carving and making brooches and other ornaments. The use of this powerful hammer--for such it may possibly be--is unknown.

Hornbills are forest-birds, feeding upon fruit and insects, the latter being captured on the wing. With large bill and wings, a long tail, and a relatively small body and short legs, they are rather unwieldy birds, and yet, for many reasons, unusually interesting. Their nesting habits are unique, and quite worth recounting here at some length. Of the many accounts, one of the most interesting, as well as one of the latest, is that of Mr. Charles Hose, of Borneo.

"The nest," he writes, "is always built in the hollow of a large tree--the hollow, be it noted, being always due to disease of the tree or the ravages of termites, not to the personal labours of the birds. The bottom of this cavity is often plugged by a termites' nest and accumulation of decayed wood, and on the upper surface of this is made the nest, a very rough-and-ready structure, composed simply of the feathers of the female. The hollow of the tree communicates with the exterior air by means of a long aperture, which, just before the period of incubation, is closed up almost entirely by the male, simply leaving a long slit open, up and down which the beak of the enclosed female can move. The substance used in thus closing the aperture closely resembles some vegetable resin, and is probably composed of a gastric secretion, combined with the woody fragments of fruit. It should be noticed that this slit is always in close proximity to the nest, so that the female can easily protrude her beak for food without moving from her sitting position. During incubation the male bird supplies the female with food in the form of pellets of fruit, seeds, insects, portions of reptiles, etc., the pellets being enclosed each in a skin of rubber-like consistency. While feeding the female, the male clings to the bark of the tree, or sits on a branch if conveniently near, and jerks these pellets into the gaping beak of the hen, two to four pellets forming a meal. During mastication (for it is a mistake to suppose that the hornbills always bolt their food entire) some fragments of the pellets fall to the ground, and seeds which these fragments may contain take root, germinate, and sprout, and the natives can judge approximately of the date of incubation by the age of the seedlings. When these are four-leaved, the eggs have been hatched out for two or three weeks. At this stage, though not always so early, the mother bird leaves the nest, breaking down the gluey substance with her beak to effect an exit; having left the nest, the aperture through which she left is carefully closed up again, leaving the slit as before, and now both male and female devote their energies to feeding the young birds, which in course of time follow the example of their mother and leave their place of imprisonment. It is more than probable that this gluing up first of the mother bird and her eggs and afterwards of the nestlings alone is solely a means of protection against predacious carnivora....

"The nesting-season is during May and June, and it is noteworthy that the birds, if undisturbed, return to the same nesting-place every year. The saplings at the foot of the tree, sprung from seeds dropped in the first year of paring, afford signs to the natives of the number of years during which the tree has been occupied. If during paring or incubation the female or female and young are destroyed, the male takes to himself another mate, and repairs to the same nesting-place; if, however, the male and female are destroyed, the nest is never reoccupied by other pairs. An interesting incident was observed while on Mount Dulit. Espying on a tree the external signs of a hornbill's nest, and a male rhinoceros perched close by, I shot the male, and while waiting for my Dyak collectors to make a ladder up the tree to secure the female, I observed several young male birds fly to the nest and assiduously ply the bereaved widow with food, a fact which seems to indicate a competition in the matrimonial market of the bird-world as severe as that among human beings. It is no easy matter to procure embryos or nestlings of hornbills, for the natives are inordinately fond of both as articles of diet, and, further, are always anxious to secure the tail-feathers of the adults to adorn their war-coats and hats.

"The native method of catching the female during incubation is ingenious, though decidedly brutal. The tree is scaled, the resin-like substance is broken away, and the frightened bird flies from her nest up the hollow trunk of the tree, but is ignominiously brought down by means of a thorny stick (the thorns point downward), which is thrust after and twisted about until a firm grip in her plumage is obtained. The Dyaks, never very faithful observers of nature, believe that the female is shut up by the male, so that after hatching her eggs she may die, the maggots in her putrefying body affording food for the young. One very curious habit of the rhinoceros-hornbill which I have not hitherto seen noted is the rapid jumping up and down on a branch with both feet together. This jumping motion is imitated by the Kyans and Dyaks in their dances, the figure being known to the Kyans as 'wan blingong.'"

That the HOOPOES, unlike as they may be in general appearance, are nevertheless intimately related to the Hornbills there can be no doubt. Graceful in contour and pleasing in coloration, it is a pity that the species which so frequently visits Britain, and has on more than one occasion nested there, should be so ruthlessly shot down immediately its presence is discovered. Save the wings and tail, the body is of a light cinnamon colour, whilst the head is surmounted by a magnificent crest of black-and-white-tipped feathers, which can be raised or depressed at the pleasure of the bird: the excepted portions of the plumage--the wings and tail--are buff, varied with bands of black and white. Thus it may be truthfully said to be a conspicuously coloured bird; yet this same livery seems also to come under the head of protective coloration, for we are assured that, when danger threatens, the bird throws itself flat upon the ground, spreads out its wings, and at once becomes transformed into what rather resembles a heap of rags than a bird. Escape by flight, however, instead of subterfuge, seems also at times to be resorted to, since, when pursued by a falcon, it will mount rapidly to a great height, and not seldom effect its escape.

The domestic habits of the hoopoe are, however, by no means so charming as one would expect to find in so beautiful a bird. "All observers agree," writes Professor Newton, "in stating that it delights to find its food among filth of the most abominable description, and this especially in its winter quarters. But where it breeds, its nest--usually in the hole of a tree or of a wall--is not only partly composed of the foulest materials, but its condition becomes worse as incubation proceeds, for the hen scarcely ever leaves her eggs, being assiduously fed by the cock as she sits (a feature strongly recalling the custom of the hornbills), and when the young are hatched their fæces are not removed by their parents, as is the case with most birds, but are discharged in the immediate neighbourhood of the nest, the unsanitary condition of which can readily be imagined. Worms, grubs, and insects generally, form the hoopoes' food, and upon it they get so fat in autumn that they are esteemed a delicate morsel in some of the countries of Southern Europe, and especially by the Christian population of Constantinople."

Beside the EUROPEAN HOOPOE, which also extends into Northern Africa, four other species are known, three of which are African, whilst a fourth ranges from India to Hainan.

Nearly related to the birds we have just described are the WOOD-HOOPOES. They differ from their allies in being crestless, having a more curved bill, and a plumage of metallic purple, with a white patch on the wings and white markings on the tail. Their habits resemble those of their more highly coloured relatives.

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