THE PIE KIND. 11? 



it of the choicest sticks of which it is composed. But these tnefts 

 never go unpunished ; and probably upon complaint being made, there 

 is a general punishment inflicted. I have seen eight or ten rooks 

 come upon such occasions, and setting upon the new nest of the 

 young couple all at once, tear it in pieces in a moment. 



At length, therefore, the young pair find the necessity of going 

 more regularly and honestly to work. While one flies to fetch the 

 materials, the other sits upon the tree to guard it ; and thus in the 

 space of three or four days, with a skirmish now and then between, 

 the pair have fitted up a commodious nest composed of sticks without, 

 and of fibrous roots and long grass within. From the instant the fe- 

 male begins to lay, all hostilities are at an end ; not one of the whole 

 grove, that a little before treated her so rudely, will now venture to 

 molest her ; so that she brings forth her brood with patient tranquilli- 

 ty. Such is the severity with which even native rooks are treated by 

 each other ; but if a foreign rook should attempt to make himself a 

 denizen of their society, he would meet with no favour; the whole 

 grove would at once be up in arms against him, and expel him with- 

 out mercy. 



In some countries these birds are considered as a benefit, in others 

 as a nuisance : their chief food is the worm of the dor-beetle, and 

 corn ; thus they may be said to do as much service by destroying 

 that noxious insect, as they do injury by consuming the produce of 

 the husbandman's industry. 



To this tribe of the crow-kind, some foreign sorts might be added : 

 I will take notice only of one, which, from the extraordinary size and 

 fashion of its bill, must not be passed in silence. This is the Calao, 

 or horned Indian raven, which exceeds the common raven in size 

 and habits of depredation. But what he differs in from all other birds 

 is the beak, which by its length and curvature at the end, appears de- 

 signed for rapine ; but then it has a kind of horn standing out from 

 the top, which looks somewhat like a second bill, and gives this bird, 

 otherwise fierce and ugly, a very formidable appearance. The horn 

 springs out of the forehead, and grows to the upper part of the bill, 

 being of great bulk ; so that near the forehead it is four inches broad, 

 not unlike the horn of the rhinoceros, but more crooked at the tip. 

 Were the body of the bird answerable in size to the head, the calao 

 would exceed in magnitude even the vulture or the eagle. But the 

 head and beak are out of all proportion, the body being not much 

 larger than that of a hen. Yet even here there are varieties ; for in 

 such of those birds as come from different parts of Africa, the body 

 ;s proportionable to the beak ; in such as come from the Molucca Isl- 

 ands, the beak bears no proportion to the body. Of what use this 

 extraordinary excrescence is to the bird, is not easy to determine; it 

 lives, like others of its kind, upon carrion, and seldom has a living 

 enemy to cope with. Nature seems to sport in the production of 

 many animals, as if she were willing to exhibit instances as v/ell of 

 variety as economy in their formation. 



