142 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



herself or her little ones, she is the most helpless of 

 creatures. Mr. Hornbill, however, proves equal to 

 the emergency, and his beak is none too large to serve 

 his purpose, for with it he transports great loads of 

 clay and plasters up the entrance to his wife's apart- 

 ment, makina; it serve him first as a hod and then as 

 a trowel. In thus walling his wife up in the tree he 

 secures her safety and concealment, but in order to 

 feed her he has to make a little window or hole in 

 the wall large enough for her to protrude the tip of 

 her beak to receive the food with which he constantly 

 supplies her. 



He is very faithful in attending to her wants. 

 Indeed, the poor fellow works so hard that he wastes 

 away and becomes so weak that on a sudden lowering 

 of the temperature during a cold rain he sometimes 

 sinks to the earth and dies. 



The mother and the nestlings, on the contrary, 

 grow fat and heavy, and are looked upon as a prize 

 by the natives when they can find them. The babies 

 (there are generally two) are the queerest-looking 

 pink-and-white bags of jelly it is possible to imagine. 

 They are about the size of full-grown pigeons before 

 they acquire their plumage, and it is three months 

 after they are hatched before they are ready to leave 

 their nest. 



When Mr. Hornbill comes to the tree he alights 

 on a branch or clings to the bark near the hole where 

 his family is, and knocks with his beak. Immediately 

 his wife's beak appears at the little window and re- 

 ceives the small bag of fruit which he always pre- 



