— 99 — 



meetings twice and they were always conducted in the same 

 manner. Always the birds sat perched, well hidden on one of 

 the middle branches close to the trunk of the tree or in the 

 shelter of the dense foliage. And when they let their cries 

 resound through the forest, they stretched out their heads so 

 that the neck formed an obtuse -angle to the longitudinal axis 

 of the body. They would, thus keep up their morning concerts 

 for hours, after which they dispersed in various directions above 

 the immense forest. 



Cab an is mentions (Journ. f. Orn. 1880, p. 351) that the 

 negroes had informed him that the male walls up the nest, 

 leaving only a little opening, and that the female must stay in 

 this prison until the young are a few days old. But the author 

 does not mention whether the nest is built in a hollow tree- 

 trunk or in any other sort of cavity. Reich enow (Vogel Afrikas 

 II. p. 233) says, on the other hand, that the hornbills choose 

 a hollow tree for their nesting- place and this is probably the 

 case with the majority of the Bucerotidae. — van Someren 

 (Ibis 1916, p. 223) says "We have seen their nesting- holes on 

 several occasions, but have not taken the eggs". But the writer 

 does not state where and how these "nesting -holes" were 

 situated. Probably they were in trees, for otherwise the author would 

 have called attention to the irregularity, if such had been present. 



During my stay on Elgon I asked the natives to look for 

 a nest of Bycanistes subcylmdricus and I was convinced before 

 hand that it should be sought for among the trees of the forest, 

 and therefore 1 commanded them to look in the forests. One 

 day one of the natives informed me that he had found such a 

 nest, not in the forest but among stones. Little thinking that 

 it was a hornbill's nest I nevertheless followed the native up 

 towards the heights of Elgon. Below Endebess — at about 

 8.000 ft. — on the eastern slopes, where large boulders and stones 

 had been blown up and lay scattered everywhere, he pointed 

 between two large blocks, saying that the nest was there. 



1 had promised the negro 5 rupees if the nest contained 

 eggs and to convince himself on this matter, he had, on finding 

 the nest pulled down the greatest part of the wall which cut 

 off the space between the blocks from the outside. Still, the 

 lower part was left and proved to be very strong, in some places 

 even as much as 2 cm. in thickness. 



In the nest, when the negro had examined it the day be- 

 fore, there was only one young bird, which according to his 

 statements should still be in the neighbourhood. I shot in this 

 spot a rather well developed young bird, but whether it was 

 the one that had inhabited the nest is doubtful. On the floor 

 of the nesting-hole lay many blackish-white feathers, which 

 undoubtedly belonged to the female that had once inhabited 

 his dwelling. 



