MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 551 
Toucan in his Travels on the Amazons, says:“‘It is to enable it to reach and devour 
fruit while remaining seated and thus to counterbalance the disadvantage which 
the heavy body and gluttunous appetite would otherwise give it in the competi- 
tion with allied groups of birds. 
The relation between the extraordinary lengthened bill of the toucan and its 
mode of obtaining food is therefore precisely similar to that between the long 
neck and lips of the Giraffe and the mode of browsing of the animal. The bill 
of the Toucan can scarcely be considered a very perfectly formed instrument for 
the end to which it is applied but nature appears not to invent organs at once 
for the functions to which they are now adapted, but avails herself here of one 
already existing structure or instinct, there of another.” 
_ However clumsy and heavy the great beak of the hornbill may appear it is, as 
a matter of fact of astonishing lightness. The hcrny sheath is very thin and 
encloses a delicate network of bone the interstices of which are filled with 
air. 
Our ‘William ’ in health carried his bill with a light and jaunty air and it was 
only before he died that he sat with his head resting against his back with the 
beak pointing upwards as though incapable of supporting its weight any longer. 
Most people are conversant with the nesting habits of the Hornbills but the 
reason for the curious mode of nidification is not apparent. General Osborne 
writing on the subject in our Journal, Vol. XV, page 715, believed that the clue to 
the mystery was to be found in the fact that the sitting hen moulted the whole 
of her quill wing and tail feathers during the period of her incarceration and thus 
in the security of her walled-in nest she was protected and concealed at a time 
when she would otherwise have been at a great disadvantage. General Osborne 
discovered this to be the case with a Common Grey Hornbill (LZ. birostris) who 
had, during the period she was enclosed within her nest, moulted the whole 
of the quill feathers of her wings and tail. 
The question is whether the females of all the various species of hornbills 
moult in this manner during the period of nidification ? 
It is strange that no other writers have commented on this particular aspect 
of the question as the matter could be easily solved by an examination of the 
nests. Bourdillon’s statement in Hume’s Nest and Eggs of Indian Birds seems 
rather to support General Osborne’s contention : describing a hen Great Indian 
Hornbill pulled off the nest he says “ The hen was in such a bad condition that 
she could not have flown ten yards from the nest until the young feathers which 
were just appearing had matured. 
Will members of the Society who have the opportunity, assist in clearing up 
the point ? 
The fact that the hen bird leaves the nest after the young are hatched, rebuild- 
ing the enclosing wall and continuing with the help of the cock bird to feed her 
young, leads one to believe that she wishes to afford them similar protection until 
they are able to fly and fend for themselves. Mr. D. 8. Kaikini who sent us the 
young live hornbill and whom we questioned on the subject wrote “the mother 
bird was not inside the nest when the youngster was found init. It had left the 
nest before—the mother bird breaks the wall of the nest and rebuilds it leaving 
a narrow slip for the young bird to thrust outits beak to receive the food she 
brings.” Describing the taking of the young hornbill Mr. Kaikini said *‘ the 
two parent birds were hovering about during the operation charging the men. 
and making a continuous roaring noise. The entrance hole was small, 4 inch x9 
inches just enough for the youngster to thrust out its bill. The entrance looked 
like a hard plug prepared out of the bird’s droppings. This was easily re- 
moved and one of the men put his hand in well wrapped round with cloth, and 
tried to pull out the young bird by its beak but the hollow was found to be too 
narrow, the hole was eventually widened with axes and the young hornbill 
removed.” 
