RHINOCEROS HORNBILL SYMBOL SERIES

Probably this was because the native home of the Helmeted Hornbill is considerably south of China. The Chinese, who developed the use of hornbill ivory to such a high degree, were apparently quite late in discovering this substance and learning its possibilities. However, these changes can be avoided or at least minimized, by special treatment, as many of the Chinese carvings demonstrate. After death, the red layer often tends to split away from the rest, especially under conditions of excessive dryness, and it gradually loses colour. When the bird grows old, a corrugated, horizontal line appears on the sides of the red portion and the whole outer surface becomes rather crinkled, as indicated in Figure 14. It is the colour of this sheath, together with the hardness and density of the inner mass, that have made the casque so highly prized for carvings, quite apart from the rarity of the substance. The solid ivory-like substance which forms the bulk of the casque is covered at the top and sides-but not in front-by a strong and gleaming sheath of brilliant red, which also overlaps the skull proper. No one has ever observed any use for this reinforced casque, and the suggestions that have been offered sound very fanciful. Just why nature has gone to all these pains is still unknown.

One blow of the bird’s beak, backed by this natural hammer on the end of the supple neck, would probably be fatal to a man if it struck him on the head-which may be one reason why our zoos do not exhibit the Helmeted Hornbill. The bones of the skull behind it are cleverly formed so as to brace the casque and give it a maximum of striking power, while cushioning the brain against the shock of impact. From Elliot’s Monograph of the Bucerotidae.īut with all its other peculiarities, the most unique thing about Rhinoplax vigil is its casque or “helmet” Not present on the very young birds, this gradually grows upward from the base of the beak, over the front of the skull. Idealized portrait of the Helmeted Hornbill. But presumably it behaves like its other hornbill relatives which means that the male shuts up his mate in a hollow tree, plastering up the entrance to keep her a prisoner until the young ones are hatched and able to fend for themselves meanwhile he comes at intervals to feed mother and young with packages of partially digested fruits served up in the cast-off lining of his gizzard. Due to the difficulty in observing this bird, almost nothing is known of its nesting habits.

RHINOCEROS HORNBILL SYMBOL SERIES

However it is often heard, for its call, a series of repeated, gradually accelerating toks ending in a burst of insane laughter, can be heard for nearly a mile. Furthermore, its two excessively long tail feathers moult alternately, so that only one is presentable at a time.Ī fruit-eating bird, it spends its life in the highest trees and hence is seldom seen. And as the bases of its flight feathers are left bare, it makes a terrific noise when flying which has been compared to the sound of an approaching train. It has no feathers at all on most of its neck and back.

Even a devoted ornithologist has described it as “a perfect nightmare of a bird.” Measuring nearly five feet from the end of its beak to the tip of its tail, it has coarse plumage, primarily of a dirty reddish black, except tor a white stomach and white bands on its tail. It is not only one of the largest birds in the jungles of Southeast Asia, but it is certainly the ugliest, in spite of the highly complimentary portrait of it shown in Figure 2. The Helmeted Hornbill is without doubt the most extraordinary member of a remarkable family. (The casques of several other species of Hornbill are far more imposing, but they are hollow or filled with spongy tissue.) The single exception is the Helmeted Hornbill, Rhinoplax vigil. This is contained in a solid casque or epithema at the front of the head above the beak. There are at least sixty varieties of Hornbill birds in the Eastern Hemisphere, but only one of these bears the “ivory,” a hard, carvable substance which is almost as dense as elephant ivory. Thus we are very fortunate in having a fine example in the University Museum (see Figure 1). Carvings in it were always highly valued and they have now become exceedingly rare.

The strange substance called “hornbill ivory” was formerly an important commodity in Asiatic trade, and it was extensively carved, especially in China and the East Indies.

Rhinoceros hornbill symbol