THE KORWE. 3-i5 



mopane-tree. On the 19th (February) we passed the nest of a 

 Korwd, just ready for the female to enter; the orifice was plas- 

 tered on both sides, but a space was left of a heart shape, and ex- 

 actly the size of the bird's body. The hole in the tree was in 

 every case found to be prolonged some distance upward above 

 the opening, and thither the Korwe always fled to escape being 

 caught. In another nest we found that one white egg, much like 

 that of the j)igeon, was laid, and the bird dropped another when 

 captured. She had four besides in the ovarium. 



" The first time that I saw this bird was at Kolobeng, where I 

 had gone to the forest for some timber. Standing by a tree, a 

 native looked behind me, and exclaimed, ' There is the nest of a 

 Korwe.' I saw a slit, only about half an inch wide and three or 

 four inches long, in a slight hollow of the tree. Thinking the 

 word ' Korwe' denoted some small animal, I waited with interest 

 to see what he would extract ; he broke the clay which sur- 

 rounded the slit, put his arm into the hole, and brought out a 

 Tockus, or Red-breasted Hornbill, which he killed. 



" He informed me that when the female enters her nest, she 

 submits to a real confinement. The male plasters up the en- 

 trance, leaving only a narrow slit by which to feed his mate, and 

 which exactly suits the form of his beak. The female makes a 

 nest of her own feathers, lays her eggs, hatches them, and remains 

 with the young till they are fully fledged. During all this time, 

 which is stated to be two or three months, the male continues to 

 feed her and the young family. The prisoner generally becomes 

 fat, and is esteemed a very dainty morsel by the natives, while 

 the poor slave of a husband gets so lean that, on the sudden low- 

 ering of the temperature, which sometimes happens after a fall of 

 rain, he is benumbed, falls down, and dies. I never had an op- 

 portunity of ascertaining the exact length of the confinement, but 

 on passing the same tree at Kolobeng about eight days afterward, 

 the hole was plastered up again, as if in the short time that had 

 elapsed the disconsolate husband had secured another wife. "We 

 did not disturb her, and my duties prevented me from returning 

 to the spot. 



" This (February) is the month in which the female enters the 

 nest. We had seen one of these, as before mentioned, with the 

 plastering not quite finished; we saw many completed, and we 

 received here the very same account that we did at Kolobeng. 

 that the bird comes forth when the } 7 oung is fully fledged, at the 



