l8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I3I 



stick of wood through the entrance. When his mate had taken it, he 

 coughed up eight blackish fruits in succession, swinging his head down 

 each time to place them in the tip of her bill. By the time the feeding 

 was done, the stick had come out of the hole. He picked it up and 

 pushed it in again. Then he flew to a perch 15 feet away. At such 

 times he would usually whack his bill loudly back and forth on a limb 

 as one would whet a knife. This male, like most of the others I 

 observed, did not linger in the nest tree after a feeding visit. 



Stick or bark presentation was a common prelude to feeding. It 

 occurred in 13 of the 40 visits observed. Objects presented ranged 

 from curled pieces of bark, i by 6 inches, to smaller bits an inch in 

 diameter. Discarded and dropped pieces accumulated on the ground 

 below the nest. The male was persistent about these offerings. On 

 December 8 he lighted above the nest and swung his bill down into 

 the entrance 23 times to offer a piece of bark. His mate gave no re- 

 sponse. When she accepted on the twenty- fourth try, he fed her four 

 fruits. 



The male usually made a feeding chuckle when a fruit was trans- 

 ferred. Numbers of fruits offered varied from 2 to 17 per visit, but 

 counting was often difficult. Thus on February 7 the male fed his 

 mate 17 small fruits. Some of these were offered 4 or 5 times before 

 she accepted. On February 28 he fed her 2 "cherries." A third one, 

 however, had to be held down 1 1 times before she took it. Possibly the 

 female is at times occupied with the young chick, so that she is not in 

 a position to accept. Fruits brought to the nest ranged from the size 

 of a pea to that of a small plum. 



In addition to bringing sticks and fruit, the male of nest 5 cleared 

 away accumulations from the entrance. The approach to the nest, 

 formed by a broken-off limb, sloped slightly upward from the wall. 

 It thus collected fecal and other matter expelled from the nest. The 

 male lingered to clear away this debris after 14 of 40 feeding visits. 

 Sometimes he swallowed a few items. More often he would pick up 

 small bits with his bill and toss them outward in a rapid and system- 

 atic fashion. On February 9 he did this 30 times after one visit and 

 on February 28, 25 times. Usually he made only a few tosses before 

 flying away. Nest 7 was the only other nest where I observed a male 

 clearing the entrance. 



Observations at other nests, while generally similar to those made 

 in the Botanical Gardens, differed with the individual character of 

 hornbill pairs. Sometimes physical peculiarities of the nest cavity led 

 to differences of behavior. Nest 6 was in the straight trunk of a huge 

 tree and the female often rested with her tail protruding from the 



