THE CLOWNS OF THE FOREST 



TRUTH is sometimes stranger than fiction, 

 even in natural history. Thus Pliny, while 

 he swallowed the stories about dragons and 

 other fabulous creatures, refused to believe in 

 the existence of hornbills. Later naturalists were obliged 

 to acknowledge the occurrence of these " Rhinoceros 

 Birds," but declined to credit the extraordinary stories 

 that travellers told of their habits. Nevertheless, these 

 stories contained more than the proverbial grain of truth. 

 It is, to-day, an established fact that, when the 

 breeding season comes round, the lady hornbill is 

 barricaded up in a hole in the trunk of a tree, and 

 remains thus incarcerated until the eggs are hatched. 

 In order that the female may not starve to death a 

 window is left in her prison, through which the male 

 bird feeds her. This extraordinary habit seems to run 

 through the whole family of hornbills. The hole in 

 which the hen-bird is plastered up is usually situated 

 high in a lofty tree ; when she has taken her place in it, 

 both she and her husband proceed to close it up, except 

 for the slit above referred to, by means of earth mixed 

 with bird-droppings, or in some cases with droppings 

 alone. 



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