a Pair of Tame Gro}ind-IIornhilU . 87 



extraordinary birds running after them and apparently 

 chasing them, is a very ludicrous one. 



Pat, as I have indicated, is the ringleader in all Tun ; but 

 he is also capable of showing temper on occasion. Two very 

 small boys had just come into the work and showed the 

 usual initial fear of the Hornbills, One, on being cornered 

 by Pat inside a hut, struck him. Pat at once flew at him, 

 seized him viciously by the hand, and damaged one or two 

 fingers rather considerably. I tried to separate the com- 

 batants, but Pat refused to desist, and finally, as he was 

 giving the two youngsters a real bad time of it, and pre- 

 venting their working, I gave them a harmle.'^s roll of paper 

 and told them to put him to flight with it and pursue him 

 till lie had no more inclination to go for them. They had 

 difficulty in this, and when they did finally drive him into 

 the open and pursue him, Biddy, hitherto an apparently 

 impassive spectator, flew at them with \igour, landing on 

 their backs and " pegging in " hard at them with her bill. 

 Needless to say, the pursuers promptly became the pursued — 

 by both birds — and have remained so since. 



Final points of diflerence between the two birds are 

 (1) that their lower, rather whining note is uttered literally 

 incessantly by Biddy, but only when being chased or re- 

 ceiving food by Pat ; (2) that the former is more inclined 

 to swallow things down recklessly without waiting to taste 

 them thoroughly than Pat, and is therefore rather less 

 useful for food-experiment. 



I have purposely avoided feeding them at the house 

 excepting just at first, and now in times — as very cold 

 weather in the dry season — when they do not seem to be 

 finding much. This is partly because when I have fed them 

 they have depended too much on it, and have tended to 

 remain hanging about the verandah. They have thus not 

 only got thoroughly hungry themselves between whiles — for 

 their digestion seems to be rapid — but they have always, 

 when no one was present, at once set to to break open the 

 cages of my other birds and kill their inmates. It is also in 

 part because, intending to experiment on them in order to 



