466 ANIMAL LIFE-HISTORIES 



habits of some at least of the Hornbills i^Bucerotidcs) are very re- 

 markable in this respect. These birds range from Africa through 

 South Asia into the East Indies. Evans thus summarizes what 

 is known of the nesting habits (in The Cambridge Natural 

 Histoiy): — "A hole in a tree or a cavity at the junction of 

 two branches serves for the nest, wherein the hen is enclosed 

 by a plaster of dung or like material ; there, under penalty 

 of death, she remains until she emerges, dirty, wasted, and en- 

 feebled, when the brood is hatched. From one to four dingy 

 white eggs with coarse pores are deposited upon the debris or 

 a few feathers. Contrary to expectation, observations seem to 

 show that the female walls herself in; but, however that may 

 be, the cock feeds her through the small opening left, and is 

 even said to knock with his bill to attract her attention as he 

 clings to the bark. He shows great anxiety about his charge, 

 and the hen screams and bites if molested." 



The parental task of birds is by no means over when their 

 eggs have hatched out, for the young are fed with anxious 

 care, and jealously guarded from enemies. This is, of course, 

 especially necessary when the nestlings are helpless. The de- 

 votion of birds to their offspring is well known, and they 

 are often quite regardless of personal danger when the wel- 

 fare of the brood is in question {fig. 987). Gilbert White 

 (in The Natural History of Selborne) thus speaks in his own 

 inimitable way of the solicitude which birds display for their 

 young: — "This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the 

 invention, and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus 

 a hen, just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird she 

 used to be, but with feathers standing on end, wings hovering, 

 and clocking note, she runs about like one possessed. Dams 

 will throw themselves in the way of the greatest danger in 

 order to avert it from their progeny. Thus a partridge will 

 tumble along before a sportsman in order to draw away the 

 dogs from her helpless covey. In the time of nidification 

 the most feeble birds will assault the most rapacious. All the 

 Hirundines [i.e. birds of the Swallow kind] of a village are up 

 in arms at the sight of a hawk, whom they will persecute till 

 he leaves that district. A very exact observer has often re- 

 marked that a pair of ravens nesting in the rock of Gibraltar 

 would suffer no vulture or eagle to rest near their station, but 



