164 



ZOOLOGY. 



[PAKT II. 



coming into the vicinity of the lakes and pasture of the 

 low country, that birds become visible in great quanti- 

 ties. In the close jungle one occasionally hears the call 

 of the copper-smith *, or the strokes of the great orange- 

 coloured woodpecker 2 as it beats the decaying trees in 

 search of insects, whilst clinging to the bark with its 

 finely-pointed claws, and leaning for support upon the 

 short stiff feathers of its tail. And on the lofty 

 branches of the higher trees, the hornbill 3 (the toucan 

 of the East), with its enormous double casque, sits to 

 watch the motions of the tiny reptiles and smaller birds 

 on which it preys, tossing them into the air when seized, 

 and catching them in its gigantic mandibles as they 

 fall. 4 The remarkable excrescence on the beak of this 

 extraordinary bird may serve to explain the statement 

 of the Minorite friar Odoric, of Portenau in Friuli, who 

 traveUed in Ceylon in the fourteenth century, and 

 brought suspicion on the veracity of his narrative by 

 asserting that he had there seen " birds with two heads" 5 

 As we emerge from the deep shade and approach the 



1 The greater red-headed Barbet 

 (Megalaima indica, Lath. ; M. Phi- 

 lippensis, var. A. Lath.~),ihe incessant 

 dm of which resembles the blows of 

 a smith hammering a cauldron. 



2 Brachypternus aurantius, Linn. 



3 Buceros pica, Scop. ; B. coro- 

 nata, Bodd. The natives assert that 

 3?. pica builds in holes in the trees, 

 and that when incubation has fairly 

 commenced, the female takes her seat 

 on the eggs, and the male closes up 

 the orifice by which she entered, 

 leaving only a small aperture through 

 which he feeds his partner, whilst 

 she successfully guards their trea- 

 sures from the monkey tribes ; her 

 formidable bill nearly filling the en- 

 tire entrance. See a paper by Edgar 

 L. Layard, Esq. Ma;/. Nat. Hist. 

 March, 1853. Dr. Horsfield had 

 previously observed the same habit 

 in a species of Buceros in Java. 

 (See HORSFIELD and MOORE'S Catal. 

 Birds, E. I. Comp. Mus. vol. ii.) It 



is curious that a similar trait, though 

 necessarily from very different in- 

 stincts, is exhibited by the termites, 

 who literally build a cell round the 

 great progenitrix of the community, 

 and feed her through apertures. 



4 The hornbill is also frugivorous, 

 and the natives assert that when en- 

 deavouring to detach a fruit, if the 

 stem is too tough to be severed by 

 his mandibles, he flings himself off 

 the branch so as to add the weight 

 of his body to the pressure of his 

 beak. The hornbill abounds in Cut- 

 tack, and bears there the name of 

 " Kuchila-Kai," or Kuchila-eater, 

 from its partiality for the fruit of the 

 Strychnus nux-vomica. The natives 

 regard its flesh as a sovereign specific 

 for rheumatic affections. Asiat, Ecs. 

 ch. xv. p. 184 



5 Itwerarius FRATRIS ODORICI, de 

 Foro Julii de Portu-vahonis, &c. 

 HAKLUYT, vol. ii. p. 31). 



