210 ON THE BREEDING OF ACEROS NIPALENSIS. 



uttering- hoarse croaks in hopes of intimidating us ; but, as soon 

 as he saw the man ascending, he evidently thought discretion the 

 better part of valor, for he took to flight, and was neither seen 

 nor heard any more that day, but, like the bold fellow he was, 

 left his better half to do the best she could under the circum- 

 stances. 



The opening appeared ridiculously small for the admission 

 of such a huge bird, and we could see quite distinctly the 

 plaster on each side of the slit. The plastering had evidently 

 been done by the female from inside, and did not meet in any 

 part. At the top of the slit there was a round hole left, and 

 from this hole to the bottom there was a narrow slit of about 2 

 inches broad down the middle. When the man neared the nest 

 the old lady poked out the tip of her beak and commenced a 

 loud cackling noise, which she kept up for a considerable time. 

 The man stood on the bulge in front of the nest, and held on by a 

 small forked bamboo which he had hooked on to the branch above, 

 and then commenced the struggle between the Nepalee and 

 the mother Hornbill. 



The old lady cackled and protested as well as she could 

 against this unwarrantable interference with her domestic affairs. 

 She opened her beak to the full extent of the opening in the tree, 

 and bit manfully at the stick and u kukree" (Nepal knife) which 

 the man pushed into her mouth to try to make her cease from 

 reviling and move upstairs — the tree, I should say, was hollow 

 for a good way up. 



The bulge was less than a foot in width, so that the man had 

 a very ticklish place to stand on with nothing but a small bam- 

 boo to hold on by, aud though none of us doubted the pluck of 

 the bold Pahari, yet, what between the frightful noise, the awful 

 looking cavern of a mouth, and the plucky way in which the 

 bird fought, we were all inclined to back the old lady and give 

 long odds. As it turned out, our bets would have been quite 

 safe ; for after a quarter of an hour's conflict, the Pahari descen- 

 ded in despair. 



A big Lepcha then went up to try his fortune, and, strange 

 to say, he only gave her a single poke when up she went aloft. 

 I suppose she thought, like school boys, one and one fair play, 

 but one down and another at her immediately after, was too 

 much of a good thing, and, no doubt, seeing other eight or ten 

 people down below, had the idea that she would have to fight the 

 lot one after the other, and as they were more than she could 

 reasonably hope to master, it would be better to give in at once, 

 so up she went, and we saw her no more. 



She was still upstairs when we left the foot of the tree some- 

 time afterwards , certainly she deserved credit for her pluck, 



