398 
MR. TICKELL'S ADVENTURE. 
incubation she remains a willing prisoner, her mate feeding her with 
the greatest activity. Here is Tickell's narrative in support of this 
statement : Learning from the natives of Karra that a hornray had 
settled in a hollow of a tree close at hand, to which for years these 
birds had been accustomed to resort, he hastened thither, and found the 
nest in the hollow of a branchless trunk, about fifty feet above the 
ground. The entrance was nearly closed up with a thick layer of 
clay ; there was left but one small opening, through which the female 
projected her bill to receive the food brought by her mate. With 
much difficulty a native climbed up to the hole, and began to remove 
the clay. Meantime the male uttered grievous complaints, flying from 
side to side, and passing close to the intruders. The natives seemed to 
dread his attacks, and Mr. Tickell had much ado to prevent them from 
killing him. When the opening was sufiiciently large, the man who 
had escaladed the tree thrust his arm into the hole, but received so 
violent a blow from the female's beak that he withdrew it in hot 
haste, almost falling to the ground. At length, having protected his 
hand with a wrapping of linen, he succeeded in seizing the unfortunate 
bird, which was in a sad condition, frightened, dirty, miserable. On 
descending, he put her on the ground ; she sprang or leaped from one 
side to the other, and made threatening motions with her beak ; she 
could not fly. At length she climbed a small tree, and obtained some 
rest. In the bottom of the hole, at a depth of about three feet, and 
resting on a stratum of wood shavings, morsels of bark, and feathers, 
was a single egg, of a bright brown colour. 
Such is the hornray 's nest ; a heap of wood and bark, deposited in 
the natural hollow of a tree, the opening of which is cleverly patched 
up with a coat of clay ! The Rhyticeros plicatus (or hornbill) of the 
Eastern Archipelago makes her nest, as we have seen, in the same 
fashion. 
THE PHILIPPINE WEAVER-BIRD. 
Let us assume the seven-league boots always at the disposal of 
narrator and romancist, and cross from the bush-covered plains and 
cedar woods of Australia to the luxuriant landscapes of India and the 
Philippine Archipelago. The Philippine Islands can boast of a member 
