May 35, 1870] 
NATURE 
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in the case of Hornbills met with during his African 
explorations, and there appears to be no doubt of its 
authenticity. In Sumatra, in 1862, Mr, Wallace 
heard the same story from his hunters, and was 
taken to see a nest of the Concave-casqued Hornbill, in 
which, after the male bird had been ‘shot while in the 
act of feeding its mate, the female was discovered walled 
up. “With great difficulty,” Mr. Wallace tells us, “I 
persuaded some natives to climb up the tree, and bring me 
the bird. This they did, alive, and along with ita young 
one, apparently not many days old, and a most remarkable 
object. Lt was about the size of a half-grown duckling, but 
opposite sexes of a rather smaller bird, the Plait-billed 
Hornbill (2. plzécatus), which is found in the Burmese 
peninsula, Sumatra and Java. The male, as in many other 
species, has the head and neck white or pale rufous, while 
the female these parts are black, like the rest of the body. 
It will be also remarked that the colour of the naked skin 
of the throat is not alike in the two sexes. Thefourth and 
smallest bird is a female of the Slender Hornbill (Buceros 
gracilis.) Neither of these two last-named species have 
been previously exhibited in the Society’s collection, 
which now contains twelve Hornbills of eight different 
species. 
THE BURROWING OWL 
so flabby and semi-transparent as to resemble a bladder of 
jelly, furnished with head, legs, and rudimentary wings, 
but with not a sign of a feather, except a few lines of 
points indicating where they would come.” 
It would be certainly very delightful to be able to wit- 
ness this imprisoning process in the Zoological Society’s 
Gardens, and a fine moral lesson would at the same 
time be administered to such of the British matrons as are 
in the habit of running about neglecting their infant 
children. 
Of the four Hornbills last received, one only belongs 
to the large species I have just spoken of. 
Two are the | 
(3.) Four Burrowing Owls (Pholeoptynx cunicularia), 
presented by George Wilks, Esq., C.M.Z.S., of Buenos 
Ayres. The Burrowing Owl is an American species of 
Day-Owl, well-known for its abnormal habits, and widely 
distributed in the New World. In the prairies of the far 
West, it lives in the “villages” of the Prairie-dog (Arctomys 
ludovicianus), residing in the forsaken burrows. “The 
burrow selected,” says the well-known naturalist, Audu- 
bon, “is usually at the foot of a wormwood-bush (A7- 
temiséa), upon the summit of which the owl often perches, 
and stands for a considerable while. On being approached 
they utter a low chattering sound, start, and skim along 
