78 BTJCEEOTID^l. 



20 yards from the tree, whence we could watch the struggle be- 

 tween the Nepalee and bird. The male had been looking on from 

 a respectable distance at the house-breaking preparations, and 

 uttering hoarse croaks in hopes of intimidating us ; but, as soon 

 as he saw the man ascending, he evidently thought discretion the 

 better part of valour, for he took to flight, and was neither seen nor 

 heard any more that day, but, like the bold fellow he was, left his 

 better half to do the best she could under the circumstances. 



" The opening appeared ridiculously small for the admission of 

 such a huge bird, and we could see quite distinctly the plaster on 

 each side of the slit. The plastering had evidently been done by 

 the female from inside, and did not meet in any part. At the top 

 of the slit there was a round hole left, and fom this hole to 

 the bottom there was a narrow slit of about 2 inches broad down 

 the middle. When the man neared the nest the old lady poked 

 out the tip of her beak and commenced a loud cackling noise, 

 which she kept up for a considerable time. The man stood on the 

 bulge in front of the nest, and held on by a small forked bamboo 

 which he had hooked on to the branch above, and then commenced 

 the struggle between the Xepalee and the mother Hornbill. 



" The old lady cackled and protested as well as she could against 

 the unwarranted interference with her domestic aifairs. She 

 opened her beak to the full extent of the opening in the tree, and 

 bit manfully at the stick and kulwee (Nepal knife) which the man 

 pushed in her mouth to try to make her cease from reviling, and 

 move upstairs the tree, I should say, was hollow for a good w r ay up. 



" The bulge was less than a foot in width, so that the man had 

 a very ticklish place to stand on with nothing but a small bamboo 

 to hold on by, and though none of us doubted the pluck of the bold 

 Pahari, yet, what between the frightful noise, the awful-looking 

 cavern of a mouth, and the plucky way in which the bird fought, 

 we were all inclined to back the old lady and give long odds. As 

 it turned out, our bets would have been quite safe ; for after a 

 quarter of an hour's conflict, the Pahari descended in despair. 



" A big Lepcha then went up to try his fortune, and, strange to 

 say, he only gave her a single poke when up she went aloft. I 

 suppose she thought, like school boys, one and one fair play, 

 but one down and another at her immediately after, was too much 

 of a good thing, and, no doubt, seeing other eight or ten people 

 down below, had the idea that she would have to fight the lot one 

 after the other, and as they were more than she could reasonably 

 hope to master, it would be better to give in at once, so up she 

 went, and we saw her no more. 



" She was still upstairs when we left the foot of the tree some 

 time afterwards ; certainly she deserved credit for her pluck, which 

 after all was misplaced, for the solitary egg was addled. The 

 bottom of the hollow on which the bird sat was level with the 

 lower end of the opening. In the hole there were merely a few 

 of her own feathers, which I send you. I also send the egg and 



