The Hornbill's Domestic Arrangements. 97 



at the time of our visit, so that we were unable to 

 observe the remarkable habits, shared, I believe, by all 

 the hornbills, of imprisoning the female in the hole of 

 the tree in which the eggs are laid. When the female 

 begins to sit the male proceeds to plaster up the entrance 

 to the nest with a gummy secretion, and his mate is no 

 unwilling party to this arrangement, for she actually 

 helps him in the work. It is probable that while she 

 is sitting she loses all her wing feathers and is thus 

 incapable of flight. If such be the case her prison may 

 well become a fortress, where she is safe from the attacks 

 of monitors and other enemies. A crack is left open 

 in the plaster door and through this the male feeds the 

 female and the young. Even more remarkable than the 

 imprisonment of the female is the fact discovered by the 

 late A. D. Bartlett, that at a certain period of the year 

 hornbills cast the lining of their gizzards. The lining 

 is formed by a secretion, and takes the shape of a bag, 

 the mouth of which is closely folded. When cast up the 

 bag contains the fruit which the bird has been eating, 

 and it is supposed that this process enables the male to 

 provide his mate more easily with food. 



The pursuit of the hornbill had led me far from the 

 camp, and the keenness of the chase had made me 

 oblivious to a dark heavy cloud on the horizon. I knew 



