BNHS Logo
The BNHS logo is the Great Hornbill, inspired by a Great Hornbill named William, who lived on the premises of the Society from 1894 until 1920, during the honorary secretaryships of H. M. Phipson until 1906 and W. S. Millard from 1906 to 1920. The logo was created in 1933, the silver-jubilee year of the Society's founding. According to H. M. Phipson, William was born in May 1894 and presented to the Society three months later by H. Ingle of Karwar. He reached his full length (4.25 feet (1.30 m) by the end of his third year. His diet consisted of fruit like plantains and wild figs, but also of live mice, scorpions, and plain raw meat, which he ate with relish. He apparently did not drink water, nor use it for bathing. William was also known for catching tennis balls thrown at him from a distance of some thirty feet with his beak. In his obituary of W. S. Millard, Sir Norman Kinnear made the following remarks about William:
| “ | Every visitor to the Society's room in Appollo Street will remember the great Indian Hornbill, better known as the "office canary" which lived in a cage behind Millard's chair in Phipson & Co.'s office for 26 years and died in 1920. It is said its death was caused by swallowing a piece of wire, but in the past "William" had swallowed a lighted cigar without ill effects and I for my part think that the loss of his old friend was the principal cause. | ” |
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Profile, by E. Comber (1897) of the Great Indian Hornbill, "William," who lived on the premises of the Society from 1894 until 1920, and who would later be the model for the Society's logo.
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Another photograph of "William," by E. Comber published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 1897.
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Cover of BNHS membership application from May 1939 displaying the new Hornbill logo, created the previous year, for the 50th anniversary of the Society's founding.
Read more about this topic: Bombay Natural History Society