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tree, about fift}' feet frotn the ground. One of my 

 Dyak hunters at once recognised it as the nest of a 

 Hornbill, and proceeded to climb the tree, but was 

 obliged to come down before reaching the nest, as the 

 tree had no low branches to help him. He soon, how- 

 ever, overcame the difficulty in a manner creditable to 

 his ingenuity. Having cut a number of pins or pegs 

 of very hard wood, he drove them into the tree at in- 

 tervals of about three feet, each pin being about an 

 inch in diameter and nine inches long. After the first 

 few pins had been driven in, a straight pole was cut 

 about thirty feet long, and one end was driven firmly 

 into the ground in a perpendicuiar position, at the foot 

 of the tree. The head of each pin was then securely 

 tied to this pole, which made a simple and effective 

 ladder. The Dyak who climbed up told us that the 

 nest contained the mother and one young one. These 

 two birds were walled in with a resinous substance^ 

 leaving only a small hole through which the male bird 

 fed them, and the diameter of the hole would be about 

 two inches. This gum-like substance is formed, as I 

 afterwards found, in the body of the bird, and de- 

 posited by it round the entrance to the nest, where it 

 hardens, and becomes a protection against the many 

 enemies of these birds. When the young bird is old 

 enough to fly the parents break down this wall, and 

 the hen and her j^oungster leave the nest. Wishing to 

 observe the habits of these interesting Hornbills I 

 would not allow the men to take the birds, or to in- 

 terfere with the nest ; and on coming to the tree some 

 days afterwards, I watched the male bird feeding his 

 family. He settled on a convenient knob of the tree 

 just below the nest, and the hen bird put her beak 



