on the Black-Billed Hornhill.



109



active he often rested without movement on his perch. At the end

of six or eight days he climbed all over his cage, and tried his wings.

When resting he often uttered, almost ceaselessly, a “ Tia-tia, tia-tia,”

which was audible quite a long way off; he never failed to salute my

arrival by his hoarse cry, like that of a young Crow. I never saw him

fight the other birds.


T left him on August 27th to return to hospital, and found

him on September 22nd fully developed, Hying about his cage in

perfect health.


At this date Adjutant Chede agreed to give me the young

Hornhill which remained with him. It was perfectly tame; they

had clipped its wings and it was left at semi-liberty, contenting itself

with returning at night. As it had always been hand-fed, and had

never been seen to feed itself, people thought it did not know how to

do so ; moreover, he screamed in the presence of food, so that it was

decided to give him the morsel, and he never touched it of his own

accord. But on September 22nd, at six o’clock at night, when they

wished me to put him back, he could not be found. They called ; he

answered “ Tia-tia, tia-tia ” ; he was perched in the middle of a

papaw tree. I took him and demonstrated that his stomach was

very full, though his owners had had no time to attend to him since

noon. The droppings, which T kept, showed that he had been feeding

on grasshoppers, which he had taken in the bush, for his wanderings

occasionally took him far enough. In spite of their former quarrels

the two brothers did not recommence fighting ; the new arrival easily

accommodated himself to the existing regime.


Their transportation took place without incident. However,

the two birds arrived in Paris with the tail quills so damaged that I

was obliged to pull them out to allow them to grow again more

rapidly. I had similarly supervised the development of the wing

quills of the new arrival, whose first owner, one remembers, had

clipped them for him.


In the menagerie of the museum they from the very first

showed a great affection for their keeper. The new arrival, with its

wings cut, could not stand the dampness of the ground, and died on

November 20th following. The first bird died in December.



