66 PICARIAN BIRDS. 



some difficulty that I prevented them from shooting him before they continued 

 their attack on the nest When the hole was suflSciently enlarged, the man wha 

 had ascended thrust in his arm, but was so soundly bitten by the female, whose 

 cries had become perfectly desperate, that he quickly withdrew it, narrowly 

 escaping a tumble from his frail footing. After wrapping his hands in some folds 

 of cloth, he succeeded with some tix)uble in extracting the bird, a miserable-looking 

 object enough, wasted and dirty. She was handed down and let loose on the 

 ground, where she hopped about, unable to flj', and menacing the bystandei-s with 

 her bill, and at length ascended a small tree, where she remained, being too stiff 

 to use her wings. At the bottom of the hole, nearly three feet from the orifice, 

 was a solitary egg, resting upon mud, fragments of bark and feathers." 

 The number of eggs laid by hornbills seems to vary, sometimes only one being 

 met with, while at other times four or even five are found in the nest; the 

 present species, apparently, never laying more than four. The female seems to 

 assist in the matting-in of the nest-hole, using leaf-mould and earth, mixed with 

 her own droppings and various decaying vegetable substances, so that the nests 

 are often filthy and give forth an intolerable stench. In all probability the real 

 reason for the retirement of the female hombill into the recess of a tree, is that 

 the bird is about to moult, and that this process is completed while concealed in 

 the tree. Thus the emaciated condition of some of the birds, when liberated, could 

 be accounted for, while their subsequent fat condition and good plumage would be 

 the result of the completed moult. The hole is doubtless plastered up as a defence 

 against enemies, of which the hornbills have plenty. The formidable bill of the 

 birds is useful as a weapon of defence, as well as being of the needful shape to serve 

 as a trowel for plastering up the hole of the tree. 

 wedge-TaUed The wedge-tailed hornbills, as the members of the second section 



Hornbills. Qf ^he typical subfamily are collectively termed, comprise several 

 genera distinguished from the first section by the elongation of the central pair of 

 feathers in the tail In the case of the genus Berenicomis of Malaysia, as well 

 as in the West African Ortholophus, the tail is very much elongated, and forms a. 

 graceful appendage of graduated feathers, which have conspicuous white tips. To- 

 this section of the hornbills belong the members of the genus Lophoceros, which is 

 peculiar to Africa, and contains seventeen species. They are all small birds, 

 compared with the general run of the species of Bucerotidce, and their mode of 

 life seems to be somewhat different from those of the big hornbills of the east, 

 though they have the same habit of plastering up the female in a tree at the season 

 of incubation. They are often found on the ground, and feed on berries, seeds, and 

 insects ; Mr. Andersson stating that he has found considerable quantities of sand in 

 their stomachs, picked up by the birds when on the ground. Of the yellow-billed 

 hombill (L. melanoleucas) the above-named naturalist remarks that it " is the most 

 common of the hornbills in the middle of the southern parts of Damaraland. It 

 is found singly or in pairs, and, being a comparatively fearless bird, is easily killed, 

 especially during the heat of the day, when it invariably perches on or near the 

 top of a lofty tree (where such are to be found), and will remain for hours in this 

 situation, keeping up, with short intermissions, a kind of subdued chattering note 

 of tSe tde tSe tdck^ tdck^ tdcke t6c, in a tone not unlike the quick yelping of young 



