a Pair of Tame Ground-Hornhills. 97 



the paints of a riglit-anfrled triangle, the snake at the right 

 angle. Between them the Hornbills seemed to be keeping 

 it in a state of complete indecision. AVhen it feinted forward 

 (for that was the most its movements amounted to) towards 

 one bird, the other leaned forward, and the snake had to 

 draw back and face round for fear of being taken at a dis- 

 advantage. As it faced round, the first Hornbill would 

 come forward — and so on. Evei'y now and then a Hornbill 

 (but it was always I think Biddy), watching its opportunity, 

 would follow up an advance by a definite attempt to seize 

 the snake's head with the point of the bill. It was always 

 successful, and she at once nipped sharply : then quickly, 

 but without flurr}^, withdrew. Finally, a nip of this kind 

 resulted in an audible cracking, presumably of the skull, and 

 the bird (Biddy) this time did not let go again, but threw off 

 all reserve, and, continuing to hold the head, crushed and 

 crushed it. Finally she ran the whole snake throuoh her 

 bill, biting it well and possibly dislocating the vertebras. I 

 saw no attempt to use the wings oi- to peck. The Hornbills 

 appeared as ludicrously unconcerned and leisurely as in 

 everything they do, and there was not a hurried movement 

 throughout, unless the lightiiing-like nip that sometimes 

 followed the slow pushing up of the bill right into the 

 reptile's face. At the same time I felt little doubt that what 

 appeared to be indifference masked, actually, as it so often 

 does in these birds, a very great deal of watchful collected- 

 ness. 



All this difTers, of course, from Mr. Ayres's account, but 

 in the first place his snake may have been a far more highly 

 dangerous one ; in the second it is doubtful, of course, 

 in the absence of definite information as to their age when 

 captured, whether Pat and Biddy had any parental education. 

 I should be sorry, therefore, to claim that cmijtMng is neces- 

 sarily done by them in the way a wild l)ird would do it ! 



Since I wrote the above Mr. Ballantyno has paid me a 

 visit. Ho kept his two Hornbills, he tells me, for ei<>hteen 

 months, and ho seems to have been chiefly struck by their 



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