THE SEARCHERS. 133 



Thinking the word Korvve denoted some small animal, I waited 'with interest to see what he would 

 extract. He broke the clay which surrounded the slit, put in his arm, and pulled out a Tockas, or 

 Red-breasted Hombill, which he killed. He informed me that when the female enters her nest, she 

 submits to real confinement ; the male plasters up the entrance, leaving only a narrow slit, that 

 exactly suits the form of his beak, by which to feed his mate. The female makes the nest of her o^^^l 

 feathers, lays her eggs, hatches them, and remains with the young till they are fully fledged. During 



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THE TOK (Rhynchaccros ciytlirorhyuchus). 



all this time, which is stated to be two or three months, the male continues to feed her and the young 

 family. The prisoner generally becomes fat, and is esteemed a very dainty morsel by the natives, 

 while die poor slave of a husband gets so lean that, on the sudden lowering of the temperature that 

 often occurs after a fall of rain, he is benumbed and dies." 



Dr. Livingstone also gives the following interesting anecdote illustrative of the aftection of tliese 

 birds to their mates : — " Near sunset, on the 25th of August" (he writes from Dakanamoio Island), 

 "we saw an immense flock of the largest species of Hornbills {Bi/ccros crisfafns) come here to roost 

 on the great trees which skirt the edge of the clift'; they leave early in the morning, often before 

 sunrise, for their feeding-places, coming and going in pairs. They are evidently of a loving 



