70 



bird with his throat full of berries coming to the hen and feeding 

 her. I do not know about the male plastering the female in with 

 his ordure as is stated by Jerdon. Meer Khan, my chuprassi, who 

 went up to a nest, saw nothing of it beyond what the female her- 

 self had ejected, and which covered the sides of the orifice in which 

 the nest was placed. He pulled three young ones, funny-looking 

 wretches, out of the hole. They were covered with fine white down, 

 and their red uncouth-looking bills made them hideous. 



" Shy birds, usually, but when breeding they become bolder. 

 When a fledged young one is shot, the old birds remain a consider- 

 able time near, uttering their loud and frightful cry at various 

 intervals as if it were to call the missing one. During the coupling 

 season these cries are truly horrible. One knows what the camel 

 is capable of at that season. Here we have the Homrai, which is 

 even worse. 



"The old birds are very faithful. If one is shot the other will 

 remain a long time, going from tree to tree uttering its loud yet 

 mournful cries. They are sometimes gregarious to some extent. 

 Last December I counted 15 in one flock. In fact during the 

 whole of last winter I noticed a very large number of flocks com- 

 posed of individuals ranging from 5 to 15 in number. They are 

 fruit-eaters, but eat flowers' and buds readily." 



Mr. F. Bourdillon obtained an egg of this species on the As- 

 samboo Hills towards the end of February, and favours me with 

 the following note in regard to it : " I received this egg 011 the 

 28th February, 1873, after it had probably been taken two days, as 

 I saw the skin of the "hen bird, pulled off the nest, quite fresh. 

 The egg was very hard-set, and contained so large a young bird 

 that it was with difficulty extracted piecemeal. 



" I was told that there was no nest beyond a little rotten wood 

 which had been scraped into a hollow to receive the egg ; also that 

 there was no attempt at plastering up the mouth of the hole, which 

 was in a large tree forty or fifty feet from the ground. The hen, 

 however, was in such bad condition that possibly she could not 

 have flown 10 yards from the nest, until the young feathers, which 

 were just appearing, had matured. The old birds pair in January, 

 and the young ones first show themselves in May, shortly before 

 the rains of the S.~W. monsoon commence.'' 



Turning again to Burma, Mr. Gates, writing from Pegu, says : 

 " The mode of nidification of this and other Hornbills is now so 

 well known that, being unable to visit the forest where these birds 

 breed in great numbers, 1 felt no hesitation in sending a Burman 

 to take the eggs for me instead of going myself. He brought me 

 four eggs and the eggs of two females, with the following account : 

 He found many nests, but could induce the Karens to climb only 

 two trees. Both were wood-oil trees. The nests in both cases 

 were placed in a decayed hole at the spring of the first branches, 

 in one case at about 60 feet from the ground, and in the other 

 somewhat higher. Pieces of the materials with which the holes 

 were closed appear to be composed of dung and earth, with which 



