252 



he again found a pair of Hornbills bringing food to 

 the imprisoned female. The latter on being taken 

 out of the tree, was so weak that she was unable to 

 use her wings for a long time, and it may be a wise 

 provision of nature that the hen bird should be im- 

 prisoned in this curious manner, for it seems from 

 specimens of the Pied Hornbill {Lophoceros melanoleu- 

 cus) which we have in the British Museum from South 

 Africa, that the female undergoes a complete moult 

 wheu she is in the tree, and thus, if the nidification 

 were otherwise effected, the bird would be at the time 

 powerless for flight, and unable to defend herself. It 

 appears also that her imprisonment is quite voluntary, 

 as the female assists the male in the work of plastering 

 up the entrance to the cavity in the tree in which she 

 seeks refuge, and that the walling up of the wife at 

 this defenceless time of her life, is to guard her 

 against the attacks of the insidious foes which, in the 

 shape of skunks or lizards, would intrude upon her 

 retirement. In Borneo, as my friend Mr. Hose tells 

 us, a Parodoxure {Hemigale) is a dangerous enemy, 

 and Monitors and Tree-lizards also attack the home 

 of the Hornbill, but the female bird is generally equal 

 to the occasion, and her sharp bill is a sufficiently 

 formidable weapon of defence." 



With regard to the conveyance of food by the male 

 to the female, we get the following from the " Dic- 

 tionar}^ of Birds," Professor Newton. 



" This remarkable habit, almost simultaneously 

 noticed by Dr. Mason in Burma, Tickell in India, and 

 Livingstone in Africa, but since confirmed by other 

 observers, especially by Mr. Wallace in the Malay 

 Archipeligo, has been connected by Mr. Bartlett (Proc. 



