20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I3I 



bill tapping rapidly on either side of the lower aperture. The shape 

 of this aperture changed somewhat from one week to another and 

 the repaired areas were darker in color. Presumably feces and other 

 debris present by the opening were used, for I later obtained half of 

 the cement from this nest and found that the dark areas had seeds and 

 fruit stones embedded in it. 



Nesting females may enlarge their nest cavities by pecking at rotten 

 wood surrounding them. The female of nest lo had an escape attic 

 above her nest. I could hear her scuttling into it when I climbed up 

 the ladder, and on looking through the opening all I could see was the 

 tip of her tail. When nest 14 was opened on January 21, there was no 

 female in sight. The African who had removed the chick swept the 

 whole length of his arm inside without encountering the mother bird. 

 His position was too precarious for him to look inside. It seemed 

 probable that the mother had crawled into some remote recess. 



EGGS, YOUNG, AND NEST OPENINGS 



Eggs. — Nest 10 was in a dead tree 30 feet above the ground in 

 Mpanga Forest. On December 4 I climbed the scaffold to this nest 

 for the first time and peered through the aperture, using a flashlight. 

 The mother bird was almost out of sight in her escape attic. There 

 were two white eggs, similar to those of a domestic fowl in size and 

 shape. My next visit was on December 11. The forest ranger said 

 that he had climbed to the nest at 6 a.m. and had seen two eggs. I 

 approached the nest tree at i 130 p.m. and saw two-thirds of an egg- 

 shell on the ground directly below the nest hole. The shell was so 

 fresh that ants were still swarming over its moist inner surface. I 

 climbed the scaflfold to find the mother hornbill facing me at the 

 entrance. This was the only time she ever did so. As far as I could 

 determine before she climbed to her escape attic, she had a complete 

 plumage. When she left I saw one &gg and one blind, completely 

 naked, rather blue young one. This was a first view of my subsequent 

 pet, Mpanga. When I looked in on the following morning, I could 

 not see him, but he soon emerged from under some debris, giving a 

 feeble "chirpee, chirpee." His lower bill was larger than the upper one. 

 Early in the morning of December 14 the ranger found the second 

 egg chipped, and by afternoon he saw the shell on the ground and a 

 second chick in the nest. I was able to visit the nest two days later 

 and see the two chicks together. The larger one was chirping lustily. 

 He had brown mash over his bill and throat, and there was more mash 

 in the nest. I wondered whether the mother hornbill had regurgitated 

 food onto the nest floor and then fed it to her offspring. 



