186 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



every one notices their strange appearance 

 and their tameness, which reminds one of the 

 friendly ways of a dog rather than of a bird. 



The hen bird, when she has settled in the 

 hole she means to lay in, plasters herself in 

 with the dirt that accumulates in her cell, 

 only leaving a slit like that of a letter-box, 

 where she can put out her bill to receive the 

 food which her mate brings her. She is in 

 no danger of starving while he is alive, for 

 he works hard to feed her and the young, and 

 she is quite safe from the attacks of monkeys 

 and other nest-robbing animals, having such 

 a small opening to defend ; any monkey 

 putting his hand in the nest of the larger 

 kinds of hornbills would get such a gripe and 

 wrench from the great bill that he would 

 most likely be crippled for life, even if he did 

 not find the enraged cock hornbill helping to 

 attend to him outside. Of course the hen 

 gets rather cramped in such a small space, 

 but as she moults very hard at the time, she 

 would not be in a condition to fly if she were 

 out. 



In the case of the smaller sorts of hornbills, 

 which are not so able to fight off enemies as 



