Part 18

Ostriches are extremely shy and remarkably swift birds, so that they are difficult either to stalk or to ride down. When brought to bay, or when running loose in captivity, they should be approached with great caution, as a kick from their strongly clawed feet will prove fatal to an animal of the size of a jackal, if not also to a human being. The vision of these giant birds is very strongly developed and capable of sweeping the country to the distance of at least a mile; and their senses of hearing and smell are also good, although taste appears to be practically wanting. Occasionally ostriches indulge in a kind of dance; and they are also subject, when startled, to sudden collapse, which may have given rise to the old fable of their burying their heads in the sand and leaving their bodies exposed.

If allowed sufficient space, ostriches thrive remarkably well in confinement; and ostrich-farming, for the sake of the lovely white plumes of the cocks, has become an important industry, not only in Africa, but in many other parts of the world. Ostrich-farming was commenced in Algeria, and by 1865 had been introduced in Cape Colony, whence it has spread northwards, while it has also been established in Egypt, southern Russia, California, Patagonia, and Argentina. The cocks are clipped regularly every eight months.

THE PIED HORNBILL

(Buceros bicornis)

The hornbills, which are as large as big eagles, are some of the most extraordinary and bizarre of all birds, not only on account of the huge beaks from which they take their name, but from their strange and unique nesting-habits. In the enormous development of the beak these Old World birds are paralleled by the toucans of tropical America, although the two groups are in nowise nearly related. Such a huge and apparently unnecessary structure might at first sight seem too heavy and bulky for the bird by which it is carried; but internally the beak is generally a mere delicate tissue of bone, so that its weight is really very slight. Indeed, these enormous beaks are in most cases probably much less of an incumbrance to their owners than are the matinee hats favoured by ladies of the present day.

The pied, or double-horned species, the hornray of the natives, inhabits the dense forests of the Indo-Malay countries from the Himalaya and the Indian peninsula to the south of China and Sumatra. The glossy plumage is mostly black above, with the under-parts, the neck, the tips of the flight feathers, and the tail feathers more or less white or whitish, the upper half of the huge beak, with its horn-like appendage, being reddish yellow, and the lower half yellow. The total length of the bird, which is the largest member of the whole group, exceeds a yard. The so-called “horn,” or casque, forms a more or less flat and oblong platform on the upper part of the beak and the fore part of the head, terminating in front in two obtuse corners. On the other hand, the same appendage in the nearly allied rhinoceros-hornbill, or engan (Buceros rhinoceros), is much more horn-like, as it turns up into a recurved point in front.

The range of the hornbill group includes Africa, India, Malaya, Celebes, and New Guinea and the neighbouring islands as far as the Solomon group. The ground-hornbills are solely African, while the hollow-casqued section has a distribution equivalent to that of the group. One very remarkable Malay species, the solid-billed hornbill, the teban-mertua of the Malays (Rhinoplax vigil), differs from all the rest in having the beak and casque solid. This species is much hunted by the Chinese for the sake of its beak and casque, which have a structure resembling ivory, and are used as a substitute for that material in carving; while it is further remarkable for its bare neck and the elongation of the middle pair of tail feathers.

The flight of hornbills is heavy and noisy, the swishing sound produced by the wings being audible at a great distance. The whole body of these birds is permeated by air-tubes connected with the wind-pipe, and it is said that the movement of the air in these increases the noisiness of the flight.

Mountain-forests bordering valleys, and big forests near rivers, are the favourite haunts of the typical hornbills. Here the great birds perch in flocks which may number a score in individuals; for hours together they sit motionless, with the neck drawn back on to the body, and the body itself pressed down on to the feet.

Their food consists chiefly of the fruits of the trees in which these birds take up their quarters, the favourite fruit being figs; but in captivity hornbills will eat fruits of all kinds, as well as animal food. These birds kill every small creature that comes in the way, and throw them up in the air before swallowing the body. When perching, hornbills utter from time to time a loud cry, recalling the bark of a dog, this changing into a loud scream when they are wounded.

The most remarkable feature connected with the habits of these birds is, however, connected with their nesting arrangements. As was first observed in India in 1855 by a military officer devoted to outdoor natural history, when the female has laid her clutch of eggs, varying in number from two to half a dozen, in some hole in a tree and commenced to incubate, the male walls up the entrance to the apartment with clay, leaving an aperture only just large enough for her to protrude her beak and receive the food brought regularly by her hard-working mate. The object of this immuring process is doubtless to protect the female and her eggs or young from the attacks of birds-of-prey, or predatory arboreal mammals. Under these circumstances sanitary matters cannot, of course, be attended to, and the nest-hole, consequently, soon becomes an evil-smelling mass of abominable filth. In order that no time may be wasted, the female moults during the period of her confinement, a process which adds still more to the mess in the hole. The young, which come forth from the eggs almost naked, remain in the breeding-hole till they are fully fledged. To reach the food brought by her partner, the female, at any rate during the early stages of incubation, has to climb up to the aperture in the wall of clay.

THE BLUE MACAW

(Ara cærulea or Ara ararauna)

The blue, or blue and yellow, macaw, the ararauna of the natives, is one of the most familiar representatives of a group of tropical American parrots characterised by their large size, long tails, and brilliantly coloured plumage, as well as, it may be added, by their atrociously loud, screaming cries, which render them among the most objectionable of all birds as pets. In the species forming the subject of the plate blue and yellow are the predominant hues; yellow, it is said, being the equivalent among true parrots, in which white is unknown, to no colour at all. The whole of the under surface and the sides of the neck are deep orange-yellow, while the upper surface, inclusive of the tail-coverts, is dark sky-blue. The range of this species, like that of its relative the green and blue macaw (Ara severa), extends only from Panama southwards through the tropical forests of the New World. Other kinds are, however, found farther north, the handsome red and blue species (A. chloroptera) and the red and green macaw (A. militaris) extending, for instance, from Mexico and central America to Bolivia. Four other species, known on account of their deep blue colouring, as hyacinthine macaws, constituting the genera Anodorhynchus and Cyanopsittacus, are, on the other hand, solely Brazilian.

Macaws are not only strong fliers, but likewise excellent climbers, and in the latter mode of progression make use of their powerful beaks as well as their feet, in captivity, at any rate, frequently hanging from a branch or perch by the beak alone, which is specially adapted for obtaining a hold on smooth branches by the sharp downward curvature of the extremity of its upper half. The food of these birds includes fruits and seeds, especially hard nuts of various kinds, which are cracked in the strong beak as if in a vice. When the fruits or nuts are large, they are held to the beak in one foot. The thick, fleshy tongue aids in extracting the inside of fruits from the rind, or the kernels of nuts from their shells.

All macaws are essentially birds of the great primeval forests of tropical America, the blue and yellow species being especially abundant in those of northern Brazil. During the hottest hours of the day these birds sit quietly perched on the lower branches of thick-foliaged trees, the long tail hanging straight down, and the neck being drawn in. After resting for several hours, they issue forth in search of food; and a flock of these magnificent birds on the wing in the clear air of the tropics is a truly splendid sight, as they fly slowly to and from their feeding-places. Having selected a likely looking tree, the whole flock descend with a rush, and proceed to strip it of its fruit. Quickly each bird climbs out to the end of a branch and sets to work at cracking nuts, or devouring softer fruit. When such a flock of araraunas is feasting, little is seen of the birds themselves, but their presence is amply manifested by their incessant and discordant cries and screams. If a shot be fired in the neighbourhood, the whole flock rises immediately in a gold and azure cloud. Macaws of all kinds constantly make raids on cultivated crops, where, unless promptly driven off, they do incalculable damage in a surprisingly short space of time, cocoa being one of the crops to which they are specially partial.

As is the case with all members of the parrot tribe, the union between the sexes of the ararauna is very close: the two members of a pair are thorough comrades, and live only for themselves and their offspring. At the pairing-season each couple of the older birds resorts to the same spot, and often to the same tree, as has served them previously as a breeding-place. For the nest a tall tree is always selected, and a slit in the trunk or a hollow in one of the branches is enlarged by means of the powerful beak until a cavity large enough to contain the nest is excavated. In this chamber the female ararauna deposits a couple of white eggs of nearly the same size as those of a domesticated hen, afterwards incubating them with great assiduity, her long tail projecting all the time out of the hole, and thus revealing the situation of the nest.

Tame araraunas and other macaws are much esteemed by the Indians of Brazil and other South American countries. These dwell on the properties of their owners, and fly off to feed in the fields, just in the same manner as domesticated pigeons in Europe. They form the ornaments of the Indian poultry-yard.

In captivity in Europe macaws thrive well, and can be taught to speak, although they never turn out such good linguists as many other members of the parrot tribe.

THE MANDARIN DUCK

(Æx galerita)

The male of the mandarin duck--the mandarin drake, as it should properly be called--looks so essentially Chinese that one would almost intuitively guess that it came from China. Nevertheless, it has a near relative, and the only other member of the same genus, in North America, where it is represented by the summer duck (Æx sponsa). In this distribution these painted ducks, as they have not inaptly been called, resemble several other groups of animals, such as the true alligators (Alligator) and the spoonbeaked sturgeons (Polyodon and Psephurus), each of which has one North American and one Chinese species, although the American and Asiatic spoonbeaked sturgeons are referred to separate genera.

Ducks, it may be mentioned, are divided into two distinct sections--namely, the swimming ducks and the diving ducks; the mandarin duck and its American relative belonging to the former section, of which they form a special group, characterised by the ornate plumage of the drakes, and particularly by the broad ornamental feathers on the shoulders and the elongated plumes on the head, which form a kind of helmet, with a large flange extending backwards over the neck.

The mandarin drake is specially distinguished from the male of the summer duck by possessing a ruff on the neck formed of elongated, narrow, chestnut feathers streaked with whitish, and a chestnut and black “fan” rising up in a kind of tiger’s-claw shape on each side of the hind end of the body, and mainly formed by the broad innermost secondary feather of the wing; the helmet being copper-coloured, purple, and green, and separated by a broad white band enclosing the eye from the chestnut throat-ruff, while the beak is reddish brown. The other details of colour and pattern are sufficiently apparent in the illustration.

This gorgeous breeding-livery is, however, worn only during a portion of the year. For four months--namely, from June till September--the mandarin drake is a very ordinary-looking bird, clothed in a greyish dress, which in autumn gives place, by a second moult, to the breeding-livery, the latter lasting till the following summer. When the drake is in the non-breeding plumage, it is mainly distinguishable from the duck by its somewhat superior size. The colour of the female is chiefly grey, relieved with brown and white.

The distributional area of the mandarin duck includes northern China, Japan, and Amurland; but the species appears to be nowhere common, and in most districts is decidedly rare. In China these ducks, which are regarded as semi-sacred birds, are highly valued, and are kept in cages.

Unlike the majority of the duck tribe, both the mandarin and the summer duck are in the habit of perching on the branches of trees, and make their nests in holes either in the branches or trunk. In this perching habit they resemble the tree-ducks of the genus Dendrocycna. After lining the hole with a plentiful supply of feathers, down, and other soft material, the female lays a clutch of from seven to fifteen eggs. These she incubates herself, carefully covering them up with down every time she leaves the nest; and she likewise takes sole charge of the ducklings, from the time they are hatched till they are able to shift for themselves. When, as is frequently the case, the nest is situated over water, the ducklings throw themselves down into the water very soon after they are hatched, but in other instances they are carried in the beaks of their parents, as is the case with those of the ordinary wild duck when the nest is built above the level of the ground.

The food of these ducks, like that of many other members of the tribe, includes insects, worms, water-snails, young frogs, and other water-animals, together with the leaves and young shoots of various kinds of water-plants.