CHAP, vni.] 



BORNBILLS, 



137 



once sliot a female, with a very small blind and naked 

 little creature clinging closely to its breast, wliicb was 

 quite bare and mnch wrinkkd, reminding me of the young 

 of Marsupials, to wbich it seemed to form a transition. 

 On the back, and extending over the limbs and membrane, 

 the fur of these animals is short, hut exfiutsitely sollt, 

 resembling in its texture that of the ChincbillfL 



I returned to Palembang by wat<^r,, atid while staying a 

 day at a village while a boat was being made watertight, 

 r bad the good fortune to obtain a male, female, and young 

 hird of one of the large hornbills. 1 bad sent my hunters 

 to shoot, and while I was at breakl*ast they retm'ned, 

 bringing me a fine large male, of tbe Bncen:ts bicornis, 

 which one of them assured me he had shot while feeding 

 the female, which w^as shut up in a hole in a tree. I had 

 often read of this curious habit, and immediately returned 

 to tlie place, accompanied by seveinl of the nati\ es. After 

 (.roiising a stream and a bog, we fou!id a large tree lean- 

 ing over some water, and on its lower side, at a height of 

 about twenty feet, appeared a small hole, and what looked 

 like a quantity of mud, which T was assured had been 

 used in stopping up the large liole. After a ^sdiile we 

 heard the harsh ery of a bird ins^ide, and could see the 

 white exti'emity of its beak put out. I oifered a rupee to 

 any one who would go up and get out tlie bird, with tlie 

 egg or young one; but they all declared it was too didicult, 

 and they were afraid to try. I therefore \ery reluctantly 

 came away. In about an hour afterwards, much to my 

 surprise, a tremendous loud hoarse screaming was beard, 

 and the bird was brought me, together w^itli a young one 

 which had been found in the hole. This was a most 

 curious object, as large as a pigeon, but without u particle 

 of plumage on any part of it. It was exceedingly plump 

 and soft, and with a semi-transparent skin, so that it 

 looked more like a hag of jelly, with head and feet stuck 

 on, than like a real bird. 



The extraordinary habit of the male, in plastering up the 

 female with her egg, and feeding her during the whole time 

 of incubation, and tdl the young one is fletlged, is common 

 to several of the large hornbills, and is one of tliose strange 

 facts in natural liistory which are " stranger than tiction." 



