60 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



which dissolved after a prolonged soaking. It looks 

 as if the Hornbills swallowed fragments of wood, and 

 then regurgitated them in a comminuted condition, 

 together with a copious secretion of either salivary or 

 proventricular glands; but this is a point that requires 

 further investigation. 



Until the nestlings are from two to three weeks old 

 the female is kept a close prisoner, and is fed by 

 the male with fruit, seeds, insects, and parts of frogs 

 and lizards ; each portion of food is enclosed in a 

 membrane of rubber-like consistency, a product of the 

 proventricular glands ; from this it is clear that the 

 male, when foraging for his mate, swallows the food 

 destined for her and regurgitates it in the form of these 

 membrane-enclosed pellets. While feeding the female, 

 the male clings to the bark of the tree, or sits on a 

 branch if conveniently near, and jerks the pellets into 

 the gaping beak of the hen as it protrudes from the 

 slit ; two to four pellets are said to form a meal. 

 When the female is biting the food some fragments 

 of it are apt to fall to the ground ; any seeds which 

 these fragments may contain take root, germinate, and 

 sprout, and expert natives can approximately judge, 

 not only the date of incubation by the age of the 

 seedlings, but also the number of years during which 

 the Hornbills have nested in the same tree. Generally 

 when the nestlings are two to three weeks old, but 

 perhaps later, the hen-bird leaves the nest, breaking 

 down with her beak the woody plaster until she can 

 effect her exit, after which the orifice is closed up as 

 before, and both parents now devote themselves to 

 feeding their young, until they are old enough to be 

 released. This sealing-up of the mother and young 



