The Hornbills 169 



working husband is shot or otherwise killed the imprisoned 

 wife and baby run considerable risks of starvation. There 

 would seem, however, to be a spirit of co-operation among 

 Hornbills, for even if the female cannot free herself from 

 the hole in which she is confined, as the natives assert 

 she can do on occasion, she may be sure of the assistance 

 of her relations. Thus Mr. John Whitehead relates 1 

 that he once found a nest of a Hornbill in Northern 

 Borneo, wherein the old hen-bird and her youngster were 

 imprisoned in an old tree, the entrance to the hole being 

 secured by a plaster of gums and resins. He found no 

 less than five other Hornbills feeding her, both males and 

 females being engaged in the task. These were doubtless 

 birds which had brought up their own young one, and 

 were free to attend to some one else's needs. Before he 

 discovered the nest Mr. Whitehead shot three of the birds, 

 but the next day he again found a pair of Hornbills bring- 

 ing food to the imprisoned female. The latter, on being 

 taken out of the tree, was so weak that she was unable to 

 use her wings for a long time, and it may be a wise 

 provision of nature that the hen-bird should be imprisoned 

 in this curious manner, for it seems from specimens of the 

 Pied Hornbill {Lophoceros melanolencus) which we have in the 

 British Museum from South Africa, that the female under- 

 goes a complete moult when she is in the tree, and thus, 

 if the nidification were otherwise effected, the bird would 

 be at the time powerless for flight, and unable to defend 

 herself. It appears also that her imprisonment is quite 

 voluntary, as the female assists the male in the work of 

 plastering up the entrance to the cavity in the tree in 

 which she seeks refuge, and that the walling-up of the wife 

 at this defenceless time of her life, is to guard her against 

 the attacks of the insidious foes which, in the shape of 

 skunks or lizards, would intrude upon her retirement. In 

 1 'Ibis,' 1890, p. 17. 



