386 TROPICAL BIRD LIFE IN BOTH HEMISPHERES 



where he had gone to the forest for some timber. Standing by 

 a tree, a native looked behind him and exclaimed, " There is the 

 nest of a korwe." Seeing a slit only about half an inch wide 

 and three or four inches long in a slight hollow of the tree, and 

 thinking the word korwe denoted some small animal, he waited 

 with .interest to see what the Bechuana would extract. The 

 latter, breaking the clay which surrounded the slit, put his arm 

 into the hole and brought out a tockus, or red-beaked hornbill, 

 which he killed. 



The same habit had been previously observed in a species of 

 Buceros, in Java ; and the natives of Ceylon assert that the 

 large Malabar Hornbill {Buceros malabaricus) likewise builds 

 in holes in the trees, where the female successfully guards her 

 treasures from the monkey tribes, her bill filling up nearly the 

 whole entrance. 



