406 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



which can be distinctly heard a mile off, and is even louder than that made by the 

 flight of the great Muscovy duck." 



A curious illustration of the latter fact is afforded by the report of the first visitors 

 to the southern part of New Guinea that they had met a gigantic bird measuring 

 twenty-five feet between the tips of the wings, or sixteen as others said, which made a 

 noise when flying off like a locomotive. Mr. d'Albertis solved the riddle and says : " I 

 have ascertained that it was a Buceros ruficollis, which makes a peculiar noise in flying. 



FIG. 200. Buceros bicornis, coucave-casqued hornbill. 



This sound, especially when several bivds fly together, resembles the noise of a steam- 

 engine ; and I succeeded in convincing two or three discoverers of the great bird, 

 who are now on board the ' Ellangowan,' of the fact." 



The breeding habits of the hornbills are entirely unique among birds, and I feel, 

 when I tell the general reader of the male hornbill confining the sitting female during 

 incubation by closing the entrance to the nest hole with clay, only leaving space 

 enough for her bill to receive the food lie brings, that I will have to produce the most 



