90 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



Nature. This curious habit is peculiar to the horn- 

 bills, but seems to be common to every member of 

 the family. In this connection it is interesting to 

 note that the hoopoes, which are nearly related to the 

 hombills, have somewhat similar nesting habits. 

 The hen hoopoe, although she does not adopt the 

 heroic measure of closing up the entrance to the 

 nest cavity, is said never to leave the nest until the 

 young have emerged from the eggs. No sight is 

 commoner in India than that of a hoopoe carrying 

 food to the aperture of a hole in a tree, or in 

 a building made of mud, in which his spouse is 

 sitting. Another curious feature in the nesting habits 

 of the hombiU does not appear to have been mentioned 

 by any observer, and that is that during the nesting 

 season hombills go about in threes, and not in pairs, 

 I have noticed this on two occasions, and Mr. Home, 

 in his interesting account of the nesting of the grey 

 hombill at Mainpuri, which is recorded in Hume's 

 Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, inentions the pre- 

 sence of a third hombill, who " used to hover about, 

 watch proceedings, and sometimes quarrel with her 

 accepted lord, but he never brought food to the 

 female." Although grey hombills are by no means 

 uncommon birds, very few nests seem to have been 

 taken. The result is that there are several points 

 regarding their nidification that need elucidation. 

 Those who love the fowls of the air should lose no 

 opportunity of studying the ways of these truly re- 

 markable birds. 



